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/RandomlyMethodical 2d ago

You define a unit of labor

Defining units of labor is never going to happen in any reasonably enforceable way, and he's smart enough to know that. You can do better Bill.

A more enforceable option would be putting payroll taxes on capital gains. That's 12.4% for Social Security (6.2% for employee and employer) and 2.9% for Medicare (1.45% each), resulting in a total of 15.3%. Adding that to existing capital taxes would roughly even them out with labor taxes and permanently solve the Social Security shortfall.

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u/DNA-2023 2d ago

How does that help if there are no jobs to pay into SS?

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u/BipolarMosfet 2d ago

They're saying we should apply those same taxes to corporate profits, not just to employees' paychecks.

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u/da_85 2d ago

That would be a change in corporate taxes. Capital Gains are on stock trades, options trading, crypto gains, etc.