# Ruler of the Dispossessed By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2024-07-19 Predicting the future is a complex task. It is challenging to avoid extending too much of the present into the envisioned future. When people ascend, there is a tendency to imagine the future as the present, except with oneself in a position of greater power. Based on current realities and observable trends, the future will likely be significantly worse than the current situation. Technology is going to change how work is accomplished. Much of the work currently done will become automated. An issue worthy of attention is taxation. The working class is taxed more than corporations or capital gains. A significant amount of government revenue is obtained through taxation related to individual employment. If “robots” replace human labor, unless automated workers are taxed, tax revenue will significantly reduce. This reduction will occur at precisely the time when greater expenditures are needed to cover the increased unemployment-required payments for those workers who were replaced by automation. The capitalist interest is to ensure that automated workers are not taxed. It took decades from industrialization to institutionalize labor protections. The coming transfer to widespread automation will likely be quicker than industrialization, and there is little to suggest that societal and governmental responses to protect workers from this automation will keep pace. The increasingly powerful and exclusive plutocracy within America will be rulers of the dispossessed unless action is taken. Corporate tax rates should be increased, loopholes closed, and payment enforced. Additionally, automation should be taxed at a rate comparable to human labor. The approaches currently used within the United States have not benefited labor since the 1970s. These approaches will simply not work in the future. Now is the time to determine what our society will look like when large labor segments become unnecessary. The plutocrats should remember that about 70% of GDP is driven by consumer spending. Without work, there are no consumers. The corporate focus is on how automation can reduce costs, increase efficiency, and enhance profits. Automation could also bring massive unemployment, the inability of the government to fund unemployment benefits, and a drastically shrunken economy due to a decline in consumer spending. A strong working class is essential for a democratic society. Maybe our plutocrats want to be the rulers of the dispossessed.  #### Related Items [[Work]] [[Future]] [[Taxes]] [[Economics]] [[Automation]] [[Class]] [[Democracy]]