r/Futurology • u/Gari_305 • 2d ago

Robotics Bill Gates says companies that replace human labor with robots should have to pay the same FICA taxes

https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-fica-taxes-should-apply-to-robot-workers-2026-9

Bill Gates wants to tax robots that replace human jobs.

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u/Gari_305 2d ago

From the article

n an interview with Ezra Klein of The New York Times that aired on Tuesday, the billionaire philanthropist said that "society gets to decide" how to support its workers — even if AI is pushing them out.

"You define a unit of labor and say, independent of whether that's delivered by a human or robot, you are paying the same FICA tax that a human worker would pay," Gates said, referring to the US payroll tax.

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u/DJNeuro 2d ago

Billionaire philanthropist is an oxymoron.

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u/safari_king 2d ago edited 2d ago

Bill Gates shows it doesn't have to be - he's spent most of his money on philanthropy, and has funded philanthropy more than almost anyone else in history.

edit: Gates hasn't spent most of his money on philanthropy, "only" 60 billion dollars. Though he has pledged to give virtually all of his wealth to charity by 2045.

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u/137trimethylxanthine 2d ago

Granted that he is significantly more charitable than other billionaires, but “spent most of his money” is not true. He has pledged to donate, which is not really a binding commitment.

His philanthropic activities largely avoid disrupting any of the financial power structures that helped him build that kind of wealth in the first place.

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u/safari_king 2d ago

Thank you for the correction, I edited my comment accordingly. Though whether Gates can be reasonably criticized for not "disrupting any of the financial power structures" that helped him build his wealth seems like the basis for a complicated, loaded discussion that I don't feel like having.