Item — HN Reader

> People are perfectly content to accept pollution if it provides actual jobs not just money for tech bro douchebags living on a yacht in Tahiti.

> And for fuck sake never talk about how much you hate society and want to put people out of a job.

Let's say for the sake of argument, AI eliminates most jobs. In that case, the government will need to replace income tax.

Will the American government have an easier time taxing the physical datacenter in the United States or the billionaire that owns it in Tahiti?

And will the American government have any ability to tax a datacenter built in Dubai because there was too much bureaucracy in Virginia?

> They could learn a thing or two from the industrialists of the early 20th century.

We could learn a thing or two from the industrialists of the 18th century, who built all their infrastructure in the United Kingdom because it was convenient for them.

The British government's early advantage in factories snowballed into the largest empire on Earth and they maintained the advantage until WW2.

2 comments

> Let's say for the sake of argument, AI eliminates most jobs. In that case, the government will need to replace income tax.

In this case, these people have no future and no hope. Their kids have no future. Rejecting the AI datacenter that is causing that and in addition polluting is just logical consequence. In this alternative future, poor people will get nothing from government. Rich CEOS will see them as leeches, they will have no electoral power and the taxes will be used only to survey and harm them.

Considering rich CEOs fight tooth and nail against any taxation and pay minimal taxes on their companies, if they get their way, neither will pay taxes.

> And will the American government have any ability to tax a datacenter built in Dubai because there was too much bureaucracy in Virginia?

Well, government thoughtfully killed any chance of stability in Dubai, so you probably dont want data center there anyway. Drones and missies, you know. But, again, since it dont pay taxes and presumably will move away if it is forced to pay them, who cares.

> Will the American government have an easier time taxing the physical datacenter in the United States or the billionaire that owns it in Tahiti?

The datacenters already get long term tax deductions, probably easier to tax the billionaire's assets with a wealth tax on stock market assets...