• RatzChatsubo@vlemmy.net
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    1 year ago

    It would have to be some sort of moderated labor cost saving tax kind of thing enforced by the government

    • devzero@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Should we tax bulldozers because they take away jobs from people using shovels? What about farm equipment, since they take away jobs from people picking fruit by hand? What about mining equipment, because they take away jobs from people using pickaxes?

      • RatzChatsubo@vlemmy.net
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        1 year ago

        If the machine replaced the human, yes. That’s the argument being made currently.

        Imagine if we simply taxed machine profits after 40 hours of work. You not only can give kickbacks to large companies, but you could also rewire profits to UBI

        • pitninja@lemmy.pit.ninja
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          1 year ago

          It’s the wrong way to go about it, though. Just tax businesses’ profits and close the bullshit loopholes they exploit to avoid paying them.

        • devzero@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          But 40 hours of “work” is poorly defined. If you had everyone digging with spoons on your construction site, then you might need 100 people at 40 hours per week. If you have everyone shovels, you would only need 10 people at 40 hours a week. Do you want to tax shovels for “taking the job” from 90 people?

    • PlebsicleMcGee@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      If we think of production as costing land, labour and capital, then more efficient methods of production would likely swap labour for capital. In that case then we just tax capital growth like we’re doing now (Only properly, like without the loopholes). No need to complicate it past that