Synopsis
The book "Response to Automation-Driven Labour Displacement: Adaptive Universal Transaction Tax and Request-Based Universal Basic Income" by Boris Krieger proposes a comprehensive economic framework to address the widespread job losses expected from advancing automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence. It argues that traditional labor markets will become obsolete as machines take over most productive work, necessitating a fundamental redesign of how societies generate revenue and distribute resources to prevent mass unemployment, inequality, and social instability.
At the core of Krieger's model is the Adaptive Universal Transaction Tax (AUTT), a single, low-rate levy applied automatically to every electronic financial transaction. This replaces the complex patchwork of existing taxes—including income, corporate, sales, payroll, and capital gains taxes—with an invisible, frictionless mechanism that is nearly impossible to evade or defraud due to its integration with modern digital payment systems. The tax rate dynamically adjusts in real time using principles from feedback control theory, responding to economic conditions to reliably meet a democratically approved government budget while exhibiting countercyclical properties that help stabilize the economy during downturns.
Complementing the AUTT is a Request-Based Universal Basic Income (UBI), where every resident can simply request a guaranteed income sufficient to cover basic needs, funded directly by the revenue from the transaction tax. Unlike traditional welfare systems with bureaucratic hurdles and means-testing, this approach minimizes administrative overhead and structural incentives for dependency or fraud, while ensuring broad access without forcing participation in a shrinking labor market. The book frames these mechanisms as technically feasible with current financial infrastructure, mathematically analyzed for stability and convergence, and capable of sustaining public services in a post-labor world where human work is no longer the primary source of value or taxation.
Overall, Krieger presents the system not as a utopian ideal but as a pragmatic, elegant solution that decouples survival and dignity from traditional employment, allowing humanity to transition smoothly into an era of abundance driven by intelligent machines while preserving economic efficiency and individual freedom. The monograph draws on systems theory, control engineering, and fiscal policy to outline how such a coupled response could fundamentally reshape resource distribution in response to technological disruption.