This opinion piece was published by the prestigious German daily ‘Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’ (18 May 2012). Frank Rieger, a speaker of the German Chaos Computer Club, discusses an upcoming revolution and the fact that we are able to control its consequences: if robots and algorithms replace us in the labour market, they should also substitute us as taxpayers. The current tax philosophy caused a social and financial collapse of the state and society. Hence, the tax system should be gradually redesigned towards an indirect taxation of non-human work, in order to pay a basic income under the form of an automation dividend.
Rieger writes that if the tax system is designed in a way that more automation leads to more real wealth for all, and hence social peace is kept sustainable because all would benefit from the productivity improvement, the result would be a competitive advantage of historical dimensions.
Within such an automation friendly society nobody has to fear losing a job, since robots and algorithms will pay for our pensions, sparing us from the myriad of pension troubles that people currently face, as well as ensuring a universal basic income. Of course such a model requires significant investments in the technical and social research and development.
Obviously, for most people a job is more than a source of income: it helps to improve our self-confidence and to structure our life. Without a regular, preferably meaningful activity, a lot of people become depressed and bored. Hence, it is important to counter these feelings. Actually there is enough to be done, precisely in social areas, in art and culture, in the revitalisation of the landscape and towns – things that the market does not appropriately reward.
The German Article is available online at: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/automatisierungsdividende-fuer-alle-roboter-muessen-unsere-rente-sichern-11754772.html
