It’s surprising that your education in business did not include a section in economic efficiency. My American business education really leaned in on that concept, so maybe that’s where our views diverge.

Having said that, your argument isn’t compelling. Your entire counterargument is, “Your example is not reality”. Can you provide a case study or a real life example of your suggestion in practice?

With taxation, the smaller companies can keep up, because the large companies, that have automated everything, and just one maintenance guy working there, have to pay a lot, not to have any employees.

Yes, so you need more labor to get the same amount of product. Isn’t that what I wrote?

I agree that use of machines can give you economies of scale, which makes large businesses more competitive. So a tax on automation could indirectly benefit smaller businesses at the cost of society. I am not quite sure why a society would want that, though?