San Francisco proposes a tax on robots
Kommunist Kalifornia, where the State will rule and ensure you comply. 15.00 an hour minimum wage? Get a robot. Get a robot, pay a tax (probably equivalent to 16.00 and hour just to make sure you hire a person.Leave the state and drive it bankrupt. Idiots.
UGH.
The new technologies present a system that can eventually maintain itself and evolve automatically as the need arises. This is a first in human development, and the very real question will be whether classic human adaptive and creative skills will be able to keep up.
People will work around the definition. My digital camera can record video (like all of them) but is limited to 29 minutes 59 seconds in one video -- because the EU considers a recorder that can record 30 minutes or more in a different tax bracket.
The list goes on and on. Voice recognition software used instead of a transcriptionist, spell/grammar check software, circuit board auto-routing software. The whole modern world is based on increasing productivity, i.e. getting more done with less work. A tax on automation is just shorthand for a tax on the entire economy.
It could go further than that. How about Mike the Computer in Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress?
Of course the civil rights lawyers will love to tackle this issue. It will be an emancipation question of how do we decide when an artificial being should be granted equal status to a human. Will a human who terminates such a being be charged with homicide?
Here's the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telepho...
When making a long-distance call it sometimes took hours for the connection to be established. You would ask the operator for service to the remote location, and she would call you back once the call was ready. During the time while you waited you could perhaps shine your shoes or do the laundry, running it through the wringer and then hanging it out to dry. You didn't waste that waiting time. Indeed, you could use it for better composing your thoughts, so that when the call finally was established, you didn't waste precious minutes deciding what to say.
So let's tax robots of all types out of existence, and head straight to the abyss of full employment. We can ALL be telephone operators and horse handlers!
"It [now] seems to me that every time we manage to establish one freedom, they take another one away. Maybe two. And that seems to me characteristic of a society as it gets older, and more crowded, and higher taxes, and more laws. I would say that my position is not too far from that of Ayn Rand's; that I would like to see government reduced to no more than internal police and courts, external armed forces — with the other matters handled otherwise. I'm sick of the way government sticks its nose in everything, now."
Heinlein
Today's woman might not be quite up to the task. Several years ago I held a door open for someone, and she scornfully said, "I can do that for myself!"
To this day, though, the Southern Lady who is well brought up says, "Well, bless your soul!" where you and I would say, "You ghodddamm iddjjitt!"
As a preschool teacher my wife created a kindness pledge for the little minds. She also rotates the helper of the day and one of the things they do is remind who needs it to respect and listen to the teacher. At the very least 20 kids a year are exposed to proper behavior for a year or 2. A thousand mile trek starts with one step forward.
Thanks for sharing.
“A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.”
Heinlein
Think about all the times you have been miffed at someone. Maybe while driving, shopping, or walking in a crowded place, catching public transport and so on. There is a good chance you were miffed because the person annoying you wasn’t using basic good manners. You may have even let out a huff or said something to them. Manners reduce the rub between people much like traffic lights reduce accidents at crossings.
Another one here "Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naïve, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as “empty” “meaningless,” or “dishonest,” and scorn to use them. No matter how “pure” their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best. – Robert A Heinlein in Time Enough For Love
Kalifornia finally secedes from the USA.
Immigrants (legal or illegal, who in Kal cares?) quickly stage a coup to join Mexico.
Kalifornia asks the USA to save it from Mexico.
The POTUS asks, "Who are you?"
Why should a dino be defensively uptight when right is might? Oorah!
laughing my butt off.
I need to amend that ... It is only from individuals that taxes can be taken.