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That seems tough to determine. Does an autonomous bulldozer count as one employee because you would have had one person driving it? Or does it count as five emp
by mikeash 7y ago
That seems tough to determine. Does an autonomous bulldozer count as one employee because you would have had one person driving it? Or does it count as five employees because you run it 24/7? Or does it count as five hundred employees because that’s how many people you’d need if they were using shovels?
- mdorazio 7y agoSimilarly, this also leaves open a big loophole - if you implement a tax on jobs eliminated, the incentive shifts to starting companies that that don't have jobs in the first place. Then you quickly arrive at the sub-contracted functions shell game where a company pays for a service rather than for specific workers to avoid the automation tax, and the fulfillment companies shuffle around as new automation tech allows them to eliminate more jobs. I don't think taxation on automated labor really gets us anywhere. Wealth tax makes a lot more sense with fewer loopholes.
- AmericanChopper 7y agoShovels? How many people would it take to do the job without shovels is the question you should be asking yourself.