Marketplace launches “Robots Ate My Taxes,” examining how AI could upend government revenue
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 25, 2026 — American Public Media’s Marketplace, the most widely consumed business and economic news program in the country — in radio or television, commercial or public broadcasting — this week launches “Robots Ate My Taxes,” a multi-part audio and video series investigating an overlooked consequence of artificial intelligence: the threat AI-driven job losses pose to the tax revenue governments depend on.
The series marks the debut major project from David Brancaccio in his new role as special correspondent for Marketplace's Future Effects desk, reported alongside Daniel Shin.
Roughly two-thirds of federal revenue comes from taxes on human labor. If AI displaces workers at scale — even temporarily — that revenue base could shrink just as government budgets face new strain. “Robots Ate My Taxes” opens in Akron, Ohio, once the tire manufacturing capital of the world before the radial tire, an earlier wave of disruptive technology, gutted the city's industrial base and its tax base. Brancaccio uses that history as a case study for what could lie ahead nationally.
Subsequent installments examine proposed fixes now circulating among economists and policymakers, including:
A national consumption tax, drawing lessons from states and countries that have already experimented with the approach
An AI sovereign wealth fund, modeled on Norway's oil-and-gas fund, built from government equity stakes in AI companies
Direct taxation of AI company profits, given the practical difficulty of taxing AI “labor” itself
The series features economists and policy experts including Lee Lockwood (University of Virginia), Carter C. Price (RAND Corporation), Bruce Schneier (Harvard Kennedy School, author of "Rewiring Democracy"), Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel laureate, Columbia University), Ryan Abbott (AI law and tax expert), and Trevor Tombe (University of Calgary).
The full series broadcasts the week of August 24 across Marketplace's programs, accompanied by a set of short-form vertical videos and a reporter's notebook, with continuing coverage available at marketplace.org.
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Source: Data are copyright Nielsen Audio Nationwide DMA data, Persons 12+, Fall ‘24 + Spring ‘25.