Robot Tax = Protectionism Against Progress

Prophets of the impending automation apocalypse predict that robots will soon take 7 percent to almost 50 percent of all American jobs. Recently, billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates suggested that the job-stealing robots should be taxed just like the workers they replace.

In the eternal battle of Windows versus Mac, the tide is…

For decades, Microsoft Windows users were locked in an seemingly eternal debate with fans of Apple’s Macs over who had the superior platform – a conflict spurred by the very public rivalry between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Around the mid-aughts, things eventually settled out into kind of a stable duopoly, as Apple found its niche as the makers of premium hardware for the culture-conscious, and Windows PCs earned a rep as the computer of the mainstream, especially for gamers and office workers.

Bill Gates says robots that take your job should pay taxes

Just because a worker isn’t technically “alive” doesn’t mean it can make money for nothing, according to Bill Gates. In a recent interview with Quartz editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney, the billionaire philanthropist explained that robot labor should get taxed just like human labor – primarily as a way to maintain funding for society’s many social services, reports Business Insider .

Bill Gates: Robots Should Pay Taxes

Is Bill onto something, or does he deserve to be pied again? The billionaire philanthropist believes that robots should get taxed like human workers as a means of slowing the spread of automation and funding. While he isn’t sure how the tax would be measured, he does urge that government should play an active role in the process.