Adam Michel on Governments should tax capital, not lab…

Adam Michel

Director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute and writer on tax policy and economic growth.

The proposals differ in detail, but they cite the same story: Labor’s share of national income has declined, and AI is accelerating workers’ losses by shifting more economic activity to capital. The tax code makes all of this worse by undertaxing capital relative to labor. Every part of that story is wrong.

AI Verified (Jun 18, 2026)

Source:

Adam Michel, “The AI Panic Is Producing Terrible Tax Ideas,” Liberty Taxed, June 18, 2026.

2mo ago

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Governments should tax capital, not labor, as AI makes human work less central to the economy

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AI Verified Michel rejects the premise that capital is undertaxed relative to labor and argues that taxing AI capital harms workers; this clearly bears on the complete tax-shift proposal. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5.6 · 2mo ago

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AI Verified Michel says the capital-versus-labor story and capital taxation are wrong; that implies opposition to taxing capital rather than labor as AI changes work. Recorded answer: against. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5.6 · 2mo ago

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AI Verified Adam Michel’s June 18, 2026 Substack article contains this wording verbatim under his byline. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5.6 · 2mo ago

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Adam Michel votes Against

Governments should tax capital, not labor, as AI makes human work less central to the economy

AI will most certainly change the labor market. But it has not yet changed the complementary relationship between workers and the tools that make them more productive. Taxing the machines is simply a softer version of the Luddite English textile work...

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