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Comment by hi1234567890 | Hacker News Reader

This would be a good time to implement regulations and taxes on all robots to diminish all margins gained from automation.

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Would this tax be on all labor-saving devices, like kitchen appliances? Washing machines? Oxen-powered plows?

Looms possibly?

How about the Wheel? Wheels deprive millions of jobs for people to carry stuff.

I didn't realize this would prompt so much emotion. I only said it as a consideration. As a reminder this is a quote from Bill Gates ""If a human worker does $50,000 of work in a factory, that income is taxed," Gates said in an interview with Quartz. "If a robot comes in to do the same thing, you'd think we'd tax the robot at a similar level." < Google it.

If the robot's owner gets an extra $50k income from this, we're actually getting more in tax because their marginal income is higher.

> If the robot's owner gets an extra $50k income from this, we're actually getting more in tax because their marginal income is higher.

If the robot is owned by an individual taxpayer paying personal income tax on the income, and if you ignore taxes other than income tax that levied on labor income, and if you ignore accounting tricks, etc., this is fairly obviously true from the way progressive tax rates work.

OTOH, it becomes less obviously true when you consider how the robots are likely to be owned in the real world, the full set of taxes on income in the real world, and the greater practical ability of the rich to avoid taxation in the current system.

Assuming the owners of capital are actually paying their fair-share of taxes on that extra $50k, as codified by the law.

Just to add a bit to the discussion - middle class wage earners generally pay a much higher over-all tax rate than the rich. The robot's labor would be almost certainly taxed like any other piece of equipment, with depreciation, etc... And the increased income would also be taxed at the same rate as the business. Both of these are, as far as I know, going to be much lower than the taxes that the original wage earner had paid.

It is definitely worth considering but there is the other side. Do you want prices to continue to rise as labor costs and healthcare grow? Or would you prefer these prices actually drop even as your income grows? I'm not saying either is right or wrong. Maybe this is solved with UBI or some other approach. If the taxes are super high, the incentive to automate is diminished.

This idea is definitely NOT worth considering. With high margins, these robots actually get built, and the price will go down as other competitors catch up. In the end, everyone ends up better as it has been proven again and again in history.

Except those who end up out of a job, and unable to provide for themselves and their families.

If I'm running a Burger King restaurant and a McDonald's opens up down the street, should McDonald's have to compensate me for my losses?

That would include a tax on your job would it?

Are you on drugs? If there are no margins nobody would even bother building a robot that actually can help with farm work.

You point is so delusional I really wonder how you can develop this kind of mindset and still end up in a technology/startup community like hacker news.

Personal attacks will get you banned here. We warned you about this before, so please don't do it again.

If you have a substantive point to make, make it thoughtfully; otherwise please don't comment until you do.

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