4 ms·

Basic income does seem to work as a solution to this; also gets rid of the need for minimum wage statutes. Any other schemes?

by gte910h 13y ago

Eyght 13y ago
I'd be very surprised if we didn't start to hear calls for a tax on the robots.
- tg3 13y ago
  property tax would be reasonable - income tax would be ludicrous.
  - fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
    >income tax would be ludicrous. But why? Income tax is supposed to support the infrastructure needed to maintain and protect all of our great stuff. The fact that robots did all the work doesn't negate the need for roads and wars and bank bailouts. I wonder, if we still had slavery, would slave owners be required to pay income tax for the income generated by their slaves?
  - gte910h 13y ago
    High national property taxes may be the key trick to handle the concentrations of wealth
- marshray 13y ago
  The government is way ahead of you. Capital equipment is already taxed for businesses. I believe this can count for pure software systems as well.
- gte910h 13y ago
  That would just drive the goods out of country, no?
marknutter 13y ago
Who determines what the basic income should be and how exactly do they do it?
- tonyedgecombe 13y ago
  Presumably the people who decide what welfare and taxes should be right now.
- dllthomas 13y ago
  Like any policy question, the answer is: Ideally, the level will be set to what will produce the best outcome based on our current understanding of the world, where the precise parameters under which 'best' is determined is negotiated through a fair political and/or economic process. In practice, the question is how we best approximate that. The shape of that should be informed by economics, and will likely depend on the particular country. All of that said, I agree it's a key factor to look at when assessing a particular BI proposal; I don't think it's an unanswerable question.
mc-lovin 13y ago
Getting rid of minimum wage is probably unnecessary: when people have a basic income, the "income effect" means that they are less willing to take low wages. The main problem with your scheme is that in the far future, free trade could mean that countries with only labor and no capital would get a bad deal, and that without restrictions on people taking their wealth to other countries, the rich could theoretically use this to bargain the tax rate down so low that there was no money for a basic income (i.e. a "race to the bottom"). I don't think this will be an issue for a long time though.

Basic income does seem to work as a solution to this; also gets rid of the need for minimum wage statutes. Any other schemes?

by gte910h 13y ago

Basic income does seem to work as a solution to this; also gets rid of the need for minimum wage statutes. Any other schemes?

Eyght 13y ago

I'd be very surprised if we didn't start to hear calls for a tax on the robots.

tg3 13y ago
property tax would be reasonable - income tax would be ludicrous.
- fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
  >income tax would be ludicrous. But why? Income tax is supposed to support the infrastructure needed to maintain and protect all of our great stuff. The fact that robots did all the work doesn't negate the need for roads and wars and bank bailouts. I wonder, if we still had slavery, would slave owners be required to pay income tax for the income generated by their slaves?
- gte910h 13y ago
  High national property taxes may be the key trick to handle the concentrations of wealth
marshray 13y ago
The government is way ahead of you. Capital equipment is already taxed for businesses. I believe this can count for pure software systems as well.
gte910h 13y ago
That would just drive the goods out of country, no?

marknutter 13y ago

Who determines what the basic income should be and how exactly do they do it?

tonyedgecombe 13y ago
Presumably the people who decide what welfare and taxes should be right now.
dllthomas 13y ago
Like any policy question, the answer is: Ideally, the level will be set to what will produce the best outcome based on our current understanding of the world, where the precise parameters under which 'best' is determined is negotiated through a fair political and/or economic process. In practice, the question is how we best approximate that. The shape of that should be informed by economics, and will likely depend on the particular country. All of that said, I agree it's a key factor to look at when assessing a particular BI proposal; I don't think it's an unanswerable question.

mc-lovin 13y ago

Getting rid of minimum wage is probably unnecessary: when people have a basic income, the "income effect" means that they are less willing to take low wages. The main problem with your scheme is that in the far future, free trade could mean that countries with only labor and no capital would get a bad deal, and that without restrictions on people taking their wealth to other countries, the rich could theoretically use this to bargain the tax rate down so low that there was no money for a basic income (i.e. a "race to the bottom"). I don't think this will be an issue for a long time though.