Scared of a robot stealing your job soon? Bill Gates might just have found us some hope there

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates feels this would be one method to slow down the shift to automation.

There have been several talks about how robots could soon replace human labour and Bill Gates has now spoken his mind on it. The Microsoft co-founder has said that robots who steal jobs from humans should pay taxes. The philanthropist perceives this as a method to ensure the shift to automation is slow. This man always manages to make us believe in him all the more, doesn’t he?

Bill Gates said that governments should tax companies’ use of robots, at least for the time being. The Microsoft co-founder said that robot tax would help finance jobs that include taking care of elderly people or working with kids in schools. Since humans are particularly suited for such jobs, Gates feels a tax could ensure they do not replace humans with robots herein.

He further said that governments must oversee such programmes rather than relying on businesses, in order to ensure that jobs instead help people with lower incomes. Gates made it clear that giving up on income tax was completely out of question as that tax is needed to fund human labour at several levels. According to another report, EU lawmakers too had considered a similar tax but eventually rejected it.

Gates said that the tax could either come from the profits the companies will make when they reduce human labour and the other part could come in directly in some form of robot-tax. Whether or not this gets implemented remains to be seen, but it sure is a brilliant idea to ensure corporates and industries do not move to automation immediately and human beings do not run out of jobs completely. After all, what would a planet with just robots in companies run by robots look, right?

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