Taxes pay for robots, but robots don’t pay taxes | The Globe and Mail
It used to be that governments could justify auto industry handouts on the basis of the steady stream of tax revenues they would pocket from all those workers hired to assemble cars. But labour is a shrinking input in today’s cars. The real value added is higher up the food chain – in design and engineering – and in the expensive robots that do most of the assembly grunt work.
This is one reason why labour’s share of national income is falling everywhere. For decades, there was little fluctuation in the proportion of income accruing each to labour and capital. But since the 1990s, capital’s share has been constantly rising. That’s good for the owners of capital – in Chrysler’s case, the shareholders of Italian-based Fiat – but not so great for workers.
Read more by Konrad Yakabuski on The Globe and Mail
If you liked this scoop, you may also be interested in:
- In agriculture robots replace job vacancies
- Do industrial robots really have a positive impact on employment?
- Commercial opportunities to create more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs when FAA opens airspace to UAS
- Ability to do creative, non-routine work will be a must in the coming automation era. Is this realistic for most workers?
- Effect of robots on jobs? Only time — and management teams — will tell
See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.
December 16, 2020
Need help spreading the word?
Join the Robohub crowdfunding page and increase the visibility of your campaign