Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

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


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 20 2017, @04:14PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday February 20 2017, @04:14PM (#469294) Journal

    "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.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2