I think we should avoid political notions of redistribution of wealth and simply clarify the formula for downsizing so that companies understand that machines that replace 'man' hours of labour should still be paying income tax at the same rate of income generated as humans pay. Companies can still benefit from the increased production efficiency. The point is that the promise of the future was to free humans from the mundane and laborious, and the dangerous to pursue more culturally enriching activities in the arts, sciences and absorbing knowledge in general. Redefining how we value the work we do in these fields of endeavour is part of where the world wide web becomes an excellent way to quantify what each of us is contributing to the archive of human information we share. e.g. For the sake of argument, in a discussion like this, a penny per word might be the going rate for a discussion on a robotic income tax. If everything we say and do on the web adds to our cultural enrichment without value judgement then we can erase the old 'sweaty work ethic' with a new notion of what work is in the 21st century. We are certainly 'putting in the hours' even if we are only absorbing all this sudden access to knowledge. But how are we compensated without a mechanism in place to deal with energy exchange? Robots should pay income tax on their productivity just like everyone else!
I've held a similar view since the early 80s even as computers were just becoming household 'robots' doing precisely as commanded without the notion of enslaving any humans. Robots are responsible for the disappearing economics in communities that are home to companies that 'downsize' in favour of robotics. A robot can produce 24/7 but it does not spend its 'wages' in the community or contribute income tax proportionate to the capital it generates like the rest of us do. This is where the economy ultimately 'went'... The promise of the future was to mechanize and free the human race to pursue loftier pursuits in knowledge, self-education, the arts, science, history etc. Tax the robots and fund anything that is culturally uplifting and better suited to human aspirations in the 21st century!
I think we should avoid political notions of redistribution of wealth and simply clarify the formula for downsizing so that companies understand that machines that replace 'man' hours of labour should still be paying income tax at the same rate of income generated as humans pay. Companies can still benefit from the increased production efficiency. The point is that the promise of the future was to free humans from the mundane and laborious, and the dangerous to pursue more culturally enriching activities in the arts, sciences and absorbing knowledge in general. Redefining how we value the work we do in these fields of endeavour is part of where the world wide web becomes an excellent way to quantify what each of us is contributing to the archive of human information we share. e.g. For the sake of argument, in a discussion like this, a penny per word might be the going rate for a discussion on a robotic income tax. If everything we say and do on the web adds to our cultural enrichment without value judgement then we can erase the old 'sweaty work ethic' with a new notion of what work is in the 21st century. We are certainly 'putting in the hours' even if we are only absorbing all this sudden access to knowledge. But how are we compensated without a mechanism in place to deal with energy exchange? Robots should pay income tax on their productivity just like everyone else!
I've held a similar view since the early 80s even as computers were just becoming household 'robots' doing precisely as commanded without the notion of enslaving any humans. Robots are responsible for the disappearing economics in communities that are home to companies that 'downsize' in favour of robotics. A robot can produce 24/7 but it does not spend its 'wages' in the community or contribute income tax proportionate to the capital it generates like the rest of us do. This is where the economy ultimately 'went'... The promise of the future was to mechanize and free the human race to pursue loftier pursuits in knowledge, self-education, the arts, science, history etc. Tax the robots and fund anything that is culturally uplifting and better suited to human aspirations in the 21st century!