https://qz.com/911968/bill-gates-the-robot-that-takes-your-job-should-pay-taxes/ Interesting take on the shortage of income tax due to automation. Can't say I agree with this being implemented but it's certainly something that governments would more than likely love to do. Your take? I think it would stunt innovation and spending in emerging tech.
Government will always find ways to get more of your money and they will be aided by the billionaires in bed with it.
It was always going to happen. It's being floated in Europe also. As robots become a larger % of the means of production they will be taxed as human workers in some fashion. Demographic realities force the issue. His statement re: slowing the development of automation is blatantly ridiculous.
Actually there are countries that tax personal wealth in addition to income/profit, they just have to extend it to companies' capital structure. Well, taxing properties, plant and equipments, bank accounts.... are in a way examples. Come to think of it, value added tax in the rest of the world is like taxing the robots. So there are many ways all not too far reaching to achieve that. The ingenuities of governments on how to tax is unbounded.
I didn't bother reading the interview, just watched the video. I'm not sure of what his personal position is, just seemed like something that occurred to him might happen. It seems like it may also be an unfair tax to certain industries. A piece of software that automates a tax may render people obsolete as well (think algo trading), but I think most would dismiss the idea of taxing software as ridiculous.
That will be TOTALLY NOT necessary. Once all and I mean ALL the jobs in the world are taken over by robots, production efficiency will be extremely high to eventually reach the point where the cost of everything will be ZERO, yes that's right ZERO. So if everything costs ZERO, WHY would the government still need to collect taxes? To pay for what? Everything is FREE!!! (See my post in the previous thread https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...re-replaced-by-robots-computers.305702/page-8) Bill Gates is just too pre-occupied with making money. LOL
That's a ridiculous notion, you'd be breaking the laws of physics (conservation of energy, 1st & 2nd law of thermodynamics)
Fine, according to limit theory, all cost EXTREMELY low APPROACHING zero. There. Remember everything changes once you reach a zenith point, when water temperature reaches zero, it becomes ice. When water temperature reaches 100 Celsius, it becomes gas so what makes you think the law of thermodynamics wouldn't change when all the underlying factors reaches certain extreme point? We might not be able to envision it now maybe because we haven't reached that point yet?
This taxing of robots is the stupidest idea ever. I wonder if Bill Gates would like a special tax on Microsoft software sales to account for all the automation it provides, and for increases in productivity it gives us over good 'ol pen and paper. I'm surprised he didn't mention taxing all the farming robots like tractors and combines since they took so much manual labor out of the fields. And I'm sure he'd love the idea of taxing the use of heavy construction robots like earth movers, backhoes, and bulldozers since they eliminate so many jobs for men to be behind shovels. The whole idea is just absurd.