Would Taxing the Robots Curtail Technological Advancement or Mitigate the Risks of Automation?

AuthorIonescu, Luminita
  1. Introduction

    The notion of a tax on labor-saving technology as a scheme to assist replaced workers had broad fashionable influence in the U.S. for the duration of the Great Depression. Machine tax conceptualizations reemerge when the labor substituting consequences of technological advancement represent a main issue. (Woirol, 2018) The adoption of artificial intelligence and robots by firms is already contingent on tax, as a component of the chargeable profits or earnings. (Oberson, 2019)

  2. Conceptual Framework and Literature Review

    The turmoil created by the technological unemployment may be dealt with in a coherent manner by innovative types of taxation. (Oberson, 2019) A robot tax subjects the earnings produced by a robot to revenue and/or payroll and workforce taxes, which are to be paid by the firm adopting the robot. By raising the cost of robots, such a tax tries to create a situation where both robots and humans have the same opportunities, maintain jobs, and increase new tax incomes to assist displaced personnel. Progress in robotics intensifies the concerns generated by a tax system that levies a tax on capital income unsatisfactorily, while taxing labor income excessively. (Mazur, 2019) Due to the cutting-edge technology, wages will not decline for all workers and average wages will rise if the values of investment products decrease compared with consumer ones. The pressures to wages from the groundbreaking technology may result especially from effects on the competitiveness of markets. (Caselli and Manning, 2019)

  3. Methodology and Empirical Analysis

    The data used for this study was obtained and replicated from previous research conducted by McKinsey & Co. and Pew Research Center. I performed analyses and made estimates regarding % of U.S. adults who say they support or oppose certain policies in the event that robots and computers are capable of doing many human jobs, % of U.S. adults who say they would or would not want to ride in a driverless vehicle, use a robot caregiver, and apply for a job that uses a computer program to select applicants if given the opportunity, % of U.S. adults who say they are enthusiastic or worried about a future where robots and computers can do many human jobs, development of algorithms that can evaluate and hire job candidates, development of driverless vehicles, and development of robot caregivers for older adults, and % of U.S. adults who say that, in the event that robots and computers are capable of doing many human jobs, businesses are justified in replacing human workers if machines can do a better job at lower cost/there should be limits on number of jobs businesses can replace with machines, even if they are better and cheaper than humans.

  4. Results and Discussion

    Assuming that human labor or taxable operations come to an end or severely diminish or alter, the tax system should adjust. (Oberson, 2019) Enforcing the robot tax entails determining the robot and...

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