There should be a tax for robots that replace human jobs, says Microsoft founder Bill Gates. This is to help slow down automation as well as to finance certain areas wherein humans are needed.
In an exclusive interview with Quartz, Bill Gates shared his thoughts about the imposition of a robot tax. With advances in technology that allow for the replacement of human workers, the robot tax would aid caregivers as well as children’s education, areas wherein robots are unsuitable.
According to Gates, it is impossible to manage the result of automation—a displacement of jobs. As such, the government should be willing to impose a robot tax in order to slow automation down.
For instance, robo-advisers have begun to compete with human financial advisers, reports Jobs & Hire. Among the industries that are in danger of disappearing include travel agencies, car repair garages, and small component manufacturers.
If human laborers are taxed for their income and social security and they are replaced by robots who accomplish the same work, the latter should be taxed at a similar level, Gates tells Quartz.
Furthermore, he stated that it is the government who should do this because it has something to do with inequity. The excess labor from the displacement of jobs and the tax funds can go to lower-income areas such as aiding the elderly and children with special needs—areas that robots are unsuited for and require human understanding and human empathy.
Quartz also reports that the idea of a robot tax is not entirely foreign or new. It wrote that the European Union denied a robot tax proposal which involves requiring robot owners to pay taxes for the training of workers who lose their occupations.
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