A REAL MEASURE

I've long been a proponent of tracking Full-Time Equivalent (FTE). 

FTE is the only true measure of how productive a nation is. It's something governments are leery about reporting because 30,000 jobs suddenly works out to only 10,000 FTE when all those part-time hours are combined.  (Canada collects the data on a company by company basis but does not aggregate the data for release)

I've also been a proponent of taxing companies on the basis of FTE, getting rid of a payroll tax that can be manipulated by various nefarious hiring practices. Each hour would have a mean average value and the company would pay accordingly (employees would still pay the tax on the basis of their earnings - that's a separate thing).

It occurred to me very early one morning that FTE is rather like horsepower, in that it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to look at work being done by a machine and say "that has X FTE" or even services being done for Canadians by people outside the country and saying "that's equivalent to X FTE if that work was being done in Canada" at which point we can now tax machines for stealing jobs and companies that outsource services provided to Canadian customers.

There would no doubt be some qualifiers, and other solutions would be needed to replace the taxation revenue when product is outsourced (distance metered carbon transportation tariffs perhaps?) but since most of us will be replaced by automation or outsourcing, and currently those losses are simply drops in taxation revenue, it seems to me that this is a more equitable and sustainable method.

After all, if the services are being performed for people here, here should be taxing the employer for the work provided.

Just a thought...