Back to the Future for Taxation

Abstract

Taxation is an artnot a scienceof measuring and auditing. Faced with the challenge of putting machine labor on a level playing field with human laborthe two leading forms of twentieth- and early twenty-first-century taxationincome taxation and general consumption taxationwere wrecked at their roots. What emerged from that wreckage was a return to historic norms: a series of excise taxes and chargesbut this time with the avowed and focused purpose of not only raising revenue but also pricing and internalizing otherwise externalized harms to the self and to the biosphere.