Should the Robots That Take Your Job Be Taxed?

A Chinese factory replaced 90% of their human workers with robots and production rose by 250% … while defects dropped by 80%.

Fascinating or terrifying?

The world is changing.

Some say change is the only constant …  Others remind of death and taxes.

In this video,  Bill Gates says we should tax robots.

 

 

Are we about to treat robots as "electronic persons"?  It isn't unprecedented … we already treat certain business structures like people in tax and legal matters.

But, where does it stop?  

If you tax robots … what's the difference between a robot, an algorithm, a cotton gin, or printing press?

Taxing increased productivity could have happened at any time.

Are we ready to change the face of capitalism and society?

At the extreme, it raises a question, if production and efficiency can be raised without as many humans working, what will humans do?

This quickly leads to some far-fetched (but thought-provoking) ideas and conversations.  For example, recently Elon Musk (and this presidential candidate) proposed a Universal Basic Income.  The basic premise of this is that by giving people the minimum income necessary to survive, you free them up to do what they're passionate about.

Clever … or crazy?

We live in exciting times. 

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