I’ve noted repeatedly in the past that the notion of AGI, as it is batted around these days, is not so well-defined.  But that said, just imagine that any meaningful version of AGI is going to contain the concept “a lot more stuff gets produced.”

So say AGI comes along, what does that mean for taxation?  There have been all these recent debates, some of them surveyed here, on labor, capital, perfect substitutability, and so on.  But surely the most important first order answer is: “With AGI, we don’t need to raise taxes!”

Because otherwise we do need to raise taxes, given the state of American indebtedness, even with significant cuts to the trajectory of spending.

So the AGI types should in fact be going further and calling for tax cuts.  Even if you think AGI is going to do us all in someday — all the more reason to have more consumption now.  Of course that will include tax cuts for the rich, since they pay such a large share of America’s tax burden.  (Effective Altruists, are you listening?”)

The rest of us can be more circumspect, and say “let’s wait and see.”