
Bill Gates: Robots Should Pay Taxes - empressplay
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/02/18/robots-that-steal-human-jobs-should-pay-taxes-gates-says.html?cq_ck=1487396977124
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BillBohan
I saw some odd concepts in this article.

Robots are stealing jobs? Maybe they are used to replace humans in a job which
they can perform better, faster, and more economically than humans, but the
only robot I have seen stealing was a vending machine.

Tax the robot? Robots typically have no income. If the robot fails to pay tax
would it be locked in prison where it could power down until its sentence was
served? Robots typically increase the profit of the company which uses them
and that company pays taxes on its profit. With the progressive tax system we
have they pay tax at a higher rate. It would seem that there is already a tax
on robots.

I worked for a company that made automatic label applicators which would apply
an adhesive label to a box coming down a conveyor. I have helped install these
in manufacturing plants where the employees were extremely hostile towards us.
The person who applied the label in the past was no longer needed in that
position. My response to them was that in the majority of businesses where I
had installed a machine, they took the people who had applied labels and
started another production line, increasing their output. If their company
failed to do so, it was an issue that they needed to talk to management about.
I got the definite impression that they intended to sabotage the machine.

Many years ago I had the idea that it would be possible to make general
purpose robots with most of the capabilities of a human. These robots could be
used to build a factory which produces more robots, then a factory which
produces e.g. shoes, then pants, then cars, and then mining and agricultural
robots. With no labor cost involved it would be difficult or impossible to
compete with them. With fewer people employed it would become increasingly
difficult to find consumers for the goods produced and the manufacturer would
be left no choice except to provide a basic income for all people. Those who
want to rise above a basic income would need to engage in design work,
developing new styles of shoe, pants, cars, etc. They would be compensated
according to the demand for their particular design.

If the robots are capable of repairing themselves or other robots it would
still be necessary for a human to monitor the overall operation to preclude
the possibility of a malfunctioning robot "repairing" other robots to
malfunction.

We are still a long way from having such general purpose robots but the use of
robots is already taxed.

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zunzun
If a robot could assemble other robots, are those the original robots'
"dependents"? Or if I provide the electricity and spare parts are they my
"dependents"? I don't think the concept of robotic dependents is going to work
for tax purposes, but I do imagine tax attorneys giving it a try.

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TomMarius
No, since the word comes from "depend". The newly constructed robot will most
probably be independent.

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WheelsAtLarge
This concept is already in use to a limited degree. Car registration, taxes on
gas, real estate taxes, etc, are all taxes on assets that produce income. A
robotic tax is just an extension of that.

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orionblastar
How else can they fund basic income when robots take over most jobs that
humans used to do?

