When robots began stealing jobs from humans, it was easy to panic and call for some sort of tax by which to restore the humans’ competitiveness. In “A Tax on Robots?,” written in 2017, I argued that any such tax is both unwieldy and undesirable. Instead, I suggested we take a look at how the technology and data used to build and train the machines is largely provided by us and by our governments – not just by their manufacturers or owners. Taxpayers and users thus help build up the capital stock of the robots’ owners but receive no dividends for our unpaid, capital-enhancing contributions. So, instead of a robot tax, I proposed a universal basic dividend that would work as follows: Big Tech must be made to issue new........

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