will-pay-future-not-robots

"So there's no sales tax revenue because there's no sales," says Joseph Henchman, vice president of state projects at the Tax Foundation. Cities and states get about 30 percent of their revenue from property taxes, 20 percent from sales tax, and another 20 from individual income taxes. "If revenues drop by a third"--the projected impact of automation--Henchman says, "that means services need to be cut back by a third, either through trying to be more focused or efficient with the services we do provide, or by actually having to pare back what government does." A robot tax isn't going to save jobs, but the idea is that it could help cushion the impact of mass automation by funding a universal basic income.