Minister Asscher of Social Affairs fears that the advancing use of robots that can take over more and more tasks will lead to the displacement of low-paid work and to a skewed income distribution. According to Asscher, the tax system must therefore be adjusted.
The minister spoke at a conference in The Hague about the robotization of society. Like many experts, he thinks that due to technological developments in robotics, much of the work currently done by humans will eventually be performed by robots or machines. “Robots are rapidly becoming more accessible, more reliable and cheaper. They are cheap, fast, never sick, working 24 hours a day, never asking for raises, not represented by unions and not on strike.” Asscher referred, among other things, to robots that can replace cleaners, for example, and the emergence of the autonomously driving car.
According to Asscher, adjustments are needed to respond to these trends. “We have to come up with new instruments for that; that is not possible with our current system,” says Asscher. According to the minister, there is a risk that the advance of robots will crowd out low-paid work and result in a skewed income distribution. For example, education should adapt by training young people more in ‘creative analysis’.
In addition to changes in education, the tax system should also be adapted. For example, the tax system should ‘focus more on employment at the bottom’. The government has already announced that with a change to the tax system, labor should become cheaper by lowering the tax on it.