No i think automation is good. But the distribution of the profits from automation is completely a mess.
The population needs money that they can spend for the companies to make profit. So either a taxation like this or a universal income, else the flow of money (and goods and services) is stalled.
If you think the automation is good, I guess one of the reasons is because it improves efficiency, then why to incentive a company to hire more humans?
Should a company be also subsidized by the government if it's reducing work accidents and reduces energy consumption(when introducing automation)? That subsidies would need to be payed by taxes from companies and citizens.
In my opinion the solution should not be to employ humans when a machine can do the job more efficiently, and introducing a new tax it could counter incentivize a company to introduce automation and that's exactly the opposite of whats desired. Since to introduce a new technology requires an investment and therefore risks for the company owners.
I think that once it is reached a point that it generates net unemployment, something that has not been the case for previous industrial revolutions, people should be able to reach products and production capacity at lower costs, so to be able to make a living being employed less hours.
These profits you talk about are not from automation but from product or service. You could tax companies specializing in automation, but how do you define who to tax? If software an automation based product?
Taxation won't work, for many reasons. Universal income/welfare system has it's own share of problems, but so far that's the only solution that could be somehow made workable.
The population needs money that they can spend for the companies to make profit. So either a taxation like this or a universal income, else the flow of money (and goods and services) is stalled.