February 12, 2014

Tax income from protected intellectual property rights at a higher rate than income from when competing naked in the market

Sir, Martin Wolf writes “Property rights are a social creation. The idea that a small minority should overwhelming benefit from new technologies should be reconsidered. It would be possible, for example, for the state to obtain an automatic share in the income from the intellectual property it protects”, “Enslave the robots and free the poor”, February 12.

And that as you know, is a theme close to my heart. On it I have written to you, to Martin Wolf and to other of your journalists many letter over the years. In fact only last week I wrote you a letter referring to Martin Wolf's article titled just like this one. I did not copy Wolf, and you might have not either.

Though it might very well have been thought of earlier by someone else I started to formally promote such a tax scheme in 2008, by means of an Op-Ed in El Universal, Caracas, titled “We need a tax intellectual property rights’ income”.

Wolf also writes “We must reconsider leisure… let people enjoy themselves busily”.

And that is another theme that I have often written about, as I feel it is of utmost importance for any society to know what to do well with its structural unemployed. As a example you can read “We need worthy and decent unemployments

PS. Sir, I leave it in your hand to copy or not copy Martin Wolf with this letter, since I do not wish to receive a letter from him telling me again I write too much, or that he already knows what there is to be known, on issues such as the risk-weighted capital requirements for banks.