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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
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jelizondo on Sunday February 19 2017, @11:42PM
Anyone who doesn’t include taxes (all kind) into his unit price calculations is heading fast into bankruptcy. In essence all taxes are paid by consumers, so are you suggesting that corporations should not pay any taxes whatsoever (i.e. property, sales, income.)?
Prices should come down, yes, in a perfect market where no corporations cheat to bolster their profits.
Recent examples: conspiracy to reduce salaries (Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe) [cnet.com]; VW [wikipedia.org], Fiat Chrysler [cnn.com] and Mitsubishi [vice.com] cheating on emissions and fuel economy; Well Fargo [msnbc.com] and other financial entities cheating consumers, ad nauseam.
Your faith in a perfect market is really touching, I mean touching insanity in view of ample evidence of it being a rigged market, where consumers get shafted in and out.
I know its unpopular, but we the people should be calling for greater regulations and taxation of corporations; not blindly trusting the ‘market’.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Monday February 20 2017, @05:36AM
I know its unpopular, but we the people should be calling for greater regulations and taxation of corporations; not blindly trusting the ‘market’.
It's unpopular because you are only choosing which master will be shafting you. But it's easier to put pressure on corporations: don't like them? don't buy from them. If your sentiment is sufficiently widespread, the corporation will feel the pain in the wallet. However how do you put pressure on the government? It's all but impossible, even you manage to elect an official who is thinking along the same lines. The country is ruled not by President, but by millions of career bureaucrats at all levels who issue their own little tiny edicts that nevertheless affect you personally. The CARB, for example, is feeling entitled to tell people when they cannot warm themselves by the fireplace (usually when it's the coldest). Your HOA is telling you how to paint your house and what kind of grass you must have; the city comes and tells you how many trees you must maintain... I would be very much afraid to give more power to the government - I know all too well where it will end up [wikipedia.org]. The government has power even to make you pay for policies that you do not support. Compare that to the Apple product that I am free to not buy!
Also, if you allow the government to put pressure on corporations... what do you think will happen? The last ones will leave the country. Not [only] because they are devils - but just because they have to compete with the rest of the world - and the rest of the world does not have such laws! The corporations have no nationality and no allegiance, they are just money-making functions. What will happen to the country when nobody can afford to keep a business, therefore nobody employs anyone? Obviously, the government will have to step in and open its own factories... see the link above. You will be entitled to just enough money to keep you alive, the rest will be confiscated by the government as taxes of one kind or another. That's how it was. Why nobody is willing to learn from history?
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday February 20 2017, @05:53AM
Local government is where individuals have the most influence. It also happens to be where government has the most impact on your daily life. Yet people seem to avoid civic politics for some reason.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 20 2017, @07:52AM
Who profits from peoples' ignorance?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 20 2017, @09:13AM
But it's easier to put pressure on corporations: don't like them? don't buy from them. If your sentiment is sufficiently widespread, the corporation will feel the pain in the wallet.
Compare that with: It's easier to put pressure on political parties, don't like them, don't vote for their candidates. If your sentiment is sufficiently widespread, the political party will feel the pain in the ballots.
So you somehow think the people will make better decisions voting with their wallets daily than voting once every few years?
I dunno about you, but I find that a big stretch (considering the rise of obesity in the USA too - that's people voting with their wallets daily). Most of the responses you might make e.g. "lack of good choices" can apply in the market too (esp with all the mergers).
The current President already has proven that he can sack bureaucrats. We've already seen plenty of stories of various teams scramble to backup data, sites going down etc. You and I may not like the choices he and his team makes, but do not underestimate the change the ballot box can make.
Big Corrupt Gov is preferable to Small Corrupt Gov working in league with Big Corrupt Corporations (for similar levels of Corruptness and Evil). There's no freedom of speech in Facebook. There's no right to bear arms in Disneyland. The FOIA does not apply to Apple.
You can look at Africa to see examples of countries with small corrupt Govs working with Big Corrupt Corporations. The Corporations get the oil, gold, etc; the Dictator has his palace, bodyguards and army and the rest of the country has nearly nothing. At least with a large corrupt Gov you have many thousands of bureaucrats (who surprise surprise are usually citizens).
Corporations are better at some of the innovative stuff and usually better at getting the innovative stuff to market.
Universities are good at the other innovative stuff. And the boring stuff that doesn't really need that much change should be left to the Gov and maybe Cooperatives.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 20 2017, @04:14PM
"The country is ruled not by President, but by millions of career bureaucrats"
^ this!!
That is precisely the reason that Trump isn't nearly so dangerous as everyone fears. It is also why a career politician such as HRC would be so dangerous if elected president. She KNOWS how those bureaucrats think, how they work, and how to get around them. She's been doing it for most of her adult life. Trump will have to learn how the game is played, before he can even think about outsmarting the bureaucrats. I'm not real sure he's smart enough to do that. Once again - the court fool, standing in as king.
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Monday February 20 2017, @09:40PM
Thank you for your comments. I disagree with your point of only being to options: communism or savage capitalism.
A hell of a lot more regulations are in place in other countries, mostly in Europe (mandatory guarantees [europa.eu] for example) ) and Canada [cbo-eco.ca] and they do well.
In fact Germany is the economic engine for Europe and they do have some regulations (such as store hours [wikipedia.org]) which would drive crazy any American businessman.
As the world develops, more regulations come to protect workers and consumers.
Imagine a no regulation world: your employer would not need to make sure you work in a safe space with appropriate security equipment, I’m sure you seen the many pictures and videos on the Internet about people dangling from multiple ladders stacked to get to a high place; that would be illegal in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and any other developed country.
Imagine if the food you ingest is not required by law to be safe. Imagine if the medicines you take need not be tested for effectiveness and safety. Imagine if the electric or electronic devices you use need not be tested for safety.
I do not propose or advocate a Soviet-style government but I also don’t think it is to our advantage to blindly trust the ‘market forces’, as I stated before, with regulations as they are they cheat (i.e. break the law) I can easily imagine what they would do if no law or law-enforcement was in place: back to a feudal society.