• mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 months ago

      Tax productivity, not work. Worker productivity has skyrocketed in the past few decades, but taxes have remained constant. So the rich have been able to extract increasing amounts of productivity, while paying proportionally less and less in taxes. Meanwhile, worker wages have remained stagnant, meaning their productivity has gone up but they’re still being paid (and taxed) the same.

      Wealth taxes should still absolutely be a thing, but they should be entirely divorced from a work (productivity) tax.

  • canofcam@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    The answer to this post, and almost everything, is to tax the wealthy.

    AI is not ruining anything. The people in control of it are.

    • Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      The answer to this post, and almost everything, is to tax the wealthy. AI is not ruining anything. The people in control of it are.

      This is the correct take, right here. Per the article, ““The trend toward automation and AI could lead to a decrease in tax revenues. In the United States, for example, about 85% of federal tax revenue comes from labor income, says Sanjay Patnaik, director of the Center for Regulation and Markets at the Brookings Institution,” It’s the working plebs that are carrying the majority of the tax burden.

      The rich can pay there fair share, or we can grind them up and feed the slush into a reverse osmosis machine during the water wars.

    • Leon@pawb.social
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      3 months ago

      I agree. Workers shouldn’t pay taxes, same way as the other machinery.

  • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Because AI is a disruptive technology we should require 40% of gross profits be put into a fund to address its negative externalities.

    • lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Better yet: nationalize the AI companies. Make AI like water supply or fire service - a public utility. My government is VERY far from perfect, but even a country with any semblance of democracy has a better chance of making AI safe and useful to all than a greedy corporation. That way the training data and model parameters can be opened to public scrutiny.

  • framsanon@europe.pub
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    3 months ago

    If AI “destroys” jobs, then AI should not only pay taxes, but also contribute to health insurance, unemployment insurance and pension schemes. It doesn’t matter who ultimately pays. However, I would hold employers accountable, because they are the ones who are laying off employees in favour of AI.

    • andallthat@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Not an expert at all, but I think to an extent this already happens with the current system in most countries, and it would probably need to be done much more now. Not that Automation pays more taxes, but that having employees generally qualifies companies for tax breaks.

      For instance, when Amazon said “we’re going to open a new HQ”, Cities and States tripped over themselves to try and give them the largest tax breaks. But that was under the assumption that the HQ would give jobs to tens of thousand of people, not to 5 data scientist and a massive, energy-hungry data center.

    • vega208@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      It’s definitely written by a modern journalist.

      The less-sensational approach would be to ask if the companies using AI should have their taxes raised.

  • melfie@lemy.lol
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    3 months ago

    The current tech brings a modest productivity increase when used correctly, but it isn’t really taking anyone’s jobs. Articles like this that support the fraudster’s false claim that it will are part of the problem. No, don’t tax AI, just don’t use taxpayer money to bail these fuckers out when the bubble pops.

  • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz
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    3 months ago

    Should companies using computers in general pay a tax for it, a computer used to mean a human that calculated - computed - things by hand, after all?
    But alarm clocks replaced knockeruppers, light bulbs replaced lamplighters, cars replaced coachmen, industrial robots replaced blacksmiths, we have no elevator operators, phone switch boards, traffic conductors, pin boys, link boys, ice cutters, scribes - the list of jobs made obsolete by technology during human history is massive.

    Generative AI, while widespread and disruptive, is just one more to the long list.

  • Triasha@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    AI. Is huge capital investments. Just tax the wealth. Any fortune over 10 million has to pay 4% of the gross total per year.