“If it moves, tax it”

A Canadian robot tax could be the first of its kind. The Green Party of Canada has pitched a robot tax to address the growing threat of technologies like artificial intelligence.

How a Canadian Robot Tax Would Work

Green Party leader Elizabeth May laid out terms for how the tax would work. Each time that a company replaced an employee with a machine, the company would face a new income tax. That new tax would be the equivalent of the income taxes companies would have paid on the laid-off employee. May said that the new tax would fund worker training and other educational programs. The Green party is also pushing new legislation that would govern the ethical, environmental, social and economic factors of artificial intelligence.

[For more on environmental standards, see the surprise news out of Vermont.]

Three Day Work Weeks

Meanwhile, with AI more likely to replace lower-wage jobs and repetitive processes, some thought leaders are pushing for a three-day workweek. Recently, entrepreneur Alexander Page said he wants people to work three days a week for just four hours per day. He further projects that this would be possible by 2026.

“I am convinced that we must change our philosophy,” he said in an interview. “We must make job [sic] not a source of income, but a way of realizing a person’s creative potential.”