Bill Gates Wants Robots to Pay Taxes

While the impending massive job loss due to significantly increased automation is worrying many people whose careers and livelihoods might be affected, Bill Gates has a different take on the matter. In an interview with Quartz, Gates explains that robotic labor has a positive impact in that it will free people up to do more careers that are empathy oriented such as charity, elderly aid and social services, which are very unique to humans and are not able to be done by any robots.

He also adds that these robots that displace human jobs should not be exempt from paying taxes. When a human worker is in a factory job earning $50,000 worth of labor, that income is taxed so there is no reason why the robot who comes in to replace them should not be taxed at the same rate. This way the arrival of robots does not become a net loss due to labor displacement, but would rather put the economy net ahead financially and the citizens in terms of fulfillment.

“People should be figuring it out. It is really bad if people overall have more fear about what innovation is going to do than they have enthusiasm. That means they won’t shape it for the positive things it can do. And, you know, taxation is certainly a better way to handle it than just banning some elements of it. But [innovation] appears in many forms, like self-order at a restaurant—what do you call that? There’s a Silicon Valley machine that can make hamburgers without human hands—seriously! No human hands touch the thing.”

According to Gates, although this move provides the resources, it is ultimately up to the government to play an active role in figuring out how to deploy it properly instead of just leaving business to figure out a solution to the upcoming labor displacement.

“..you ought to be willing to raise the tax level and even slow down the speed of that adoption somewhat to figure out, “OK, what about the communities where this has a particularly big impact? Which transition programs have worked and what type of funding do those require?”” Bill Gates suggests.