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Comment by sveme | Hacker News Reader

But that would require that we start taxing companies far more and stop the global tax evasion mechanisms. I fear automation is just going to further increase inequality and devastate the middle class.

But that has been predicted for every new increase in automation, so maybe we‘ll be wrong again.

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> But that would require that we start taxing companies far more

Instead of thinking of things like "payroll tax" and such being a tax on humans - change it to a tax on (for lack of a better word) productivity.

Tax the robots.

https://news.mit.edu/2022/robot-tax-income-inequality-1221

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_tax

https://fortune.com/2023/02/21/bernie-sanders-bill-gates-rob... ( https://archive.is/Y90NU )

Wouldn‘t this be a tax on capital, in the end? In the end, we might reach the marxist stage of history - we should all own the robots that produce our stuff.

If everybody is unemployed, then we’ll have plenty of time to to protest and demand major social changes. Hopefully we will have enough leverage to actually make it happen.

That only works when you aren't starved already. Many in 3rd world countries are experiencing it right now.

Yes, and guess who is posited to have their jobs disrupted by LLMs?

Knowledge workers. Programmers. White collar workers.

Y'know, the ones least likely to be starving before they get replaced by a glorified autocorrect.

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