Stephen Bush has a good piece in today’s FT, pointing out that the state pension is a form of live test of a UBI, a universal basic income. Pensioners don’t just sit around and do nothing, for the most part. Some continue to work, some do local volunteering, some travel.
It’s an important issue, he points out, because a UBI is one of the solutions for a world where AI and advanced robotics have destroyed an enormous number of jobs, without replacing many of them.
It’s worth a read, and it makes a convincing case, but the issue that isn’t mentioned, which jumped out at me, is – where does the money come from for paying the “AI state pension”?
If the companies making the money are – as they probably will be – mostly digital and mostly non-European, how are we going to tax the profits that they are making in ways that will give the State revenue? It’s hard enough as it is, when there are buildings full of office workers in Luxembourg and Cork, all beavering away in an undertaxed paradise.
I don’t have an answer, but taxing AI-driven profits is one of the social and economic questions that we need to address as AI has an increasing impact on jobs and society. If we don’t, we will end up pressuring smaller businesses that have no choice but to stay local, or imposing regressive taxes on consumption.
If anyone has seen any interesting research on this, I’d be glad to see it.