June 13, 2026
Tax me maybe? Fight me definitely
Labor Is a Market Distortion, we need VAT and UBI
Economy fix or rich-people loophole? Commenters are absolutely throwing hands
TLDR: The article argues that as automation replaces more jobs, society should pair a broad shopping tax with regular cash payments to everyone so people can still afford to live. Commenters were deeply split, with critics calling it a giveaway to the rich, demanding higher wages instead, or declaring the whole system too broken for polite fixes.
A spicy economic essay tried to pitch a big reset: tax shopping with a value-added tax (basically a sales tax added along the way) and give everyone a universal basic income, a regular cash payment, so people aren’t forced to rely only on jobs in an age of automation. The author’s core claim? Work has become a weirdly warped part of the economy, and as machines do more, society needs a new way for people to keep buying what they need.
But the comments? Pure cage match. One side said the whole thing is fantasy in a political system obsessed with policing poor people’s snack choices while the ultra-rich skate by untouched. Another camp didn’t just disagree — they dunked on the proposal, calling the tax idea flat-out stupid and accusing it of being a sneaky gift to wealthy people who can afford to spend a smaller share of their income. Others swerved hard into classic populist fury: forget elegant theory, they said, what people actually need is a living wage, universal healthcare, and taxes that finally hit billionaires where it hurts.
The darkest hot takes turned the thread from policy nerd debate into full-blown doomer theater, with one commenter basically arguing that only mass economic refusal will force change. Even the more measured critics were skeptical, asking the obvious question: if the tax hits ordinary buyers hardest, does the cash payment really cancel that out? In other words, this wasn’t a calm economics seminar — it was team UBI vs team tax-the-rich vs team burn-it-down, with everyone yelling over the receipt.
Key Points
- •The article argues that labor functions as a market distortion because people are effectively forced to supply labor in order to live.
- •The author states that about 60% of GDP goes to labor and claims wages and working hours have been disconnected from productivity for roughly 50 years.
- •The article presents automation as a key reason labor can no longer be the sole source of income for participation in the economy.
- •It argues that new job creation continues but is not instantaneous, creating instability as automation changes labor demand.
- •The proposed remedy in the article is a combined VAT and UBI system intended to stabilize consumption and address labor-market distortions.