[ben_w]

Easy to tax physical goods, hard to tax "underpaid" service work.

Is DeepMind an American company? It's owned by Google, but it was founded in, and is still HQed in, the UK, but has offices worldwide. How much appetite do you recon Canada, France, Germany, and the UK have for America's trillion-dollar-club at this point?

Now sure, you could demand any corporations selling in the US, even if not based there, hand over payroll etc. documents and then tax them at whatever the multiplier is to go from that country's salary to US salaries… if you don't mind that means some countries are banned by existing privacy laws from doing business with you, or that even this is easily gamed, or that American exceptionalism is increasingly overstaying its welcome.

[cudgy]

Sounds like maybe you’re from Europe? And have a frustration with foreign companies in the US. This further demonstrates that globalism as we’ve seen it with “free” trade is largely coming to a new era with strong headwinds, and it’s not just the US citizenry that wants that. The people that are pro H1B in the US, even given that more than half of the positions hired are foreign-born, are ignoring a stark reality that this will not likely continue. It’s gonna be a rocky road.

[ben_w]

That description is painting me with primary colours, but yes, I'm from Europe. Chose to stay in the EU, post-Brexit, rather than stay in the UK or to move to the US.

I think that the internet is incompatible with late 20th century models of national sovereignty. Globalisation itself isn't the problem, it's that services performed across an international border have a very messy relationship with legal obligations, everything from surveillance obligations[0] to minimum wage laws. This will get worse when robots can be tele-operated from a different nation, blurring the division between service and non-service (primary, raw materials; secondary, manufacturing) labour.

I don't think we here in Europe would mind so much, if Big Tech obeyed local laws (even when I disapprove of the law[0], I know I can't pick and choose which laws I follow, every jurisdiction's laws are a package deal). But Big Tech seems to treat European fines for non-compliance as if they were taxes, even though a tax on an import is called a tariff and the US is fine with those.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigatory_Powers_Act_2016, one of two reasons I left the UK

but also https://www.theverge.com/news/608145/apple-uk-icloud-encrypt...

and note that Apple disclosing they've received such an order is itself an offence.

[cudgy]

Interesting points. Totally agree with you on big tech companies simply treating fines as cost of business instead of operating in good faith within the confines of the legal requirements in the countries where they do business.

The EU is fine with tariffs as well though. It’s not a US only activity. However, the US has a history of tariffs as income tax wasn’t even in existence until early 20th century. I’m interested to see what impacts tariffs are going to play as it does seem a reasonable tool for sovereign nations to utilize. Otherwise, how else do they prevent the hollowing out of their working class in countries that do not provide the cheapest labor? Libertarian types will simply say pick up your bootstraps and compete, but that’s not realistic against labor that is a fraction of their cost. Protectionist measures may be the only logical response for the working class to be protected.

[ben_w]

> The EU is fine with tariffs as well though. It’s not a US only activity.

Indeed, I don't wish to imply otherwise, I'm just saying it's a bit hypocritical to complain about something being taxed when also implementing a tax of the kind being complained about — even if the thing being complained about is actually a fine rather than a tax, complaining about it as if it were a tax makes it hypocritical. (Also, it's not like the US doesn't fine businesses for not following laws).

I, too, have no idea how this will play out. Even just from what you say, and ignoring the potential bull-in-the-China-shop that would be the economic impact of AI performing useful cognitive labour at below-subsistence-farming wages.