PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Philadelphia city councilman has proposed a new tax on companies replacing human work with robots.
Councilman Jim Harrity said he’s not anti-technology, but he is opposed to technology that puts people out of work.
To that end, he wants to enact a 50 cent tax on deliveries made by robots, $1 per ride in a driverless car like Waymo and 3 percent of gross receipts on driverless freight deliveries.
“Work done by people isn’t covered,” Harrity explained. “Neither are tools a person directly controls. A company that keeps hiring humans never owes a dollar, so whether the tax applies is the company’s decision, not the city’s.”
Harrity said asking the companies to pay into the city is only fair, since the robots don’t contribute the way people do.
“Robots do not pay into the city they work in,” Harrity argued. “Replace a worker with a machine and wage tax, business income receipt taxes go with them. Companies keep the profits and Philadelphia keeps the bills.”
Harrity’s plan comes as something of a surprise as he previously opposed the mayor’s proposed Uber tax which would have funded the school district. He said that is not a fair comparison, since this proposal is less about generating revenue than about ensuring workers keep their jobs.
If it does generate money, Harrity said he wants to see the funds go towards a zero-fare SEPTA subsidy, but he would rather it not bring any money in.
“My best outcome for this would be we boycott these robots and the Ubers and nobody pays any tax,” Harrity said.
A council committee will hold hearings on the proposed tax before it goes to a vote.
