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posted by on Sunday February 19 2017, @05:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the robots-are-not-covered-by-the-sixteenth-amendment dept.

Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and world's richest man, said in an interview Friday that robots that steal human jobs should pay their fair share of taxes.

"Right now, the human worker who does, say, $50,000 worth of work in a factory, that income is taxed and you get income tax, Social Security tax, all those things," he said. "If a robot comes in to do the same thing, you'd think that we'd tax the robot at a similar level."

Gates made the remark during an interview with Quartz. He said robot taxes could help fund projects like caring for the elderly or working with children in school. Quartz reported that European Union lawmakers considered a proposal to tax robots in the past. The law was rejected.

Recode, citing a McKinsey report, said that 50 percent of jobs performed by humans are vulnerable to robots, which could result in the loss of about $2.7 trillion in the U.S. alone.

"Exactly how you'd do it, measure it, you know, it's interesting for people to start talking about now," Gates said. "Some of it can come on the profits that are generated by the labor-saving efficiency there. Some of it can come directly in some type of robot tax. I don't think the robot companies are going to be outraged that there might be a tax. It's OK."

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/02/18/robots-that-steal-human-jobs-should-pay-taxes-gates-says.html

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday February 19 2017, @07:07PM

    by Gaaark (41) on Sunday February 19 2017, @07:07PM (#469031) Journal

    Is Billy paying his fair share in taxes?

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by HiThere on Sunday February 19 2017, @07:55PM

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 19 2017, @07:55PM (#469047) Journal

    Well, probably moreso than the president. Of course, we can't prove that...

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    • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday February 19 2017, @08:59PM

      by Gaaark (41) on Sunday February 19 2017, @08:59PM (#469064) Journal

      :)
      Thanks! Made me laugh!

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 20 2017, @04:31PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday February 20 2017, @04:31PM (#469302) Journal

    Of course Billy pays his fair share. Bill Gate's creation voluntarily paid more taxes than were due, and still does to this day. MS would never dream of taking advantage of an Irish tax shelter, or make crazy claims that none of those billions were made in the USA, or any of those other tricks that other corporations use to avoid taxes. MS is a responsible corporation, shouldering it's fair share of the tax burden.