Justin Haskins: De Blasio's 'robot tax' sounds like a joke – but hopeless presidential candidate is serious

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio joined Fox News' Tucker Carlson for a discussion on automation in the workforce and his new "robot tax." Far-left New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination is getting less than 1 percent support in polls, wants to create a "robot tax" and a massive new government bureaucracy to slow the progress and innovation that have made America the world's economic powerhouse. The unpopular mayor is terrified of robots, computers with artificial intelligence and other advanced machines that will eventually be able to do things only people can do today, eliminating millions of jobs. He neglects to mention the obvious fact that technological advances also create new jobs – like auto workers replacing blacksmiths, airline pilots replacing stagecoach drivers, and photographers replacing portrait painters. Under de Blasio's proposed "robot tax," companies that replace jobs with automation would have to pay the equivalent of five years of payroll taxes for each employee whose job is lost, making cost-saving innovations far less attractive.