Why taxing robots is not a good idea
Some better ideas: raising the minimum wage, increasing tax rates on corporations and high-income individuals, dividends, estates, and capital gains, and using that additional revenue to improve public education on all levels, and reduce the cost of a college degree to a level that everyone can afford without going into debt.<p>The higher taxes and minimum wages would encourage companies to invest in automation, which would increase productivity, increasing corporate profits _and_ government revenue. There&#x27;d be a huge jump in demand for jobs installing, maintaining, designing, programming, and building automation technology, and a general increase in demand across the board as more people have more income because of higher minimum wages, which allow them to spend more money, which in turn grows the economy.<p>The additional investments in education availability would be timely since with higher demand for skilled labor and lower cost of tuition, people would take more classes and become more skilled and get higher paying jobs. It&#x27;s a virtuous cycle.<p>Would inflation come of this? Probably some, but after a decade of sub-2% inflation, we actually _need_ more inflation. Inflation raises prices, but it also raises salaries. When huge swaths of the middle class are buried in mortgage, student loan, and credit-card debt, inflation makes those debts _smaller_, which means those people have more money to spend, which grows the economy, creates jobs, and raises wages.<p>It can become a virtuous cycle, if only we were brave enough to kick it off.