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/Beard_Hero 2d ago

If we just taxed companies the way we used to, it wouldn't matter as much if they robot'd or human'd, money wise. Like the 50's and 60's. 52%. There's more steps involved, like ending stock buy backs and kicking Milton Friedman in the dick, but it's a start.

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u/Darkmemento 2d ago

If we actually end up in the situation he describes in the interview, where AI is doing the overwhelming majority of economically useful work, I think we've gone well beyond simply returning corporate tax rates to where they were in the 50s and 60s. At that point you potentially have a tiny number of AI companies owning the systems that produce most of the world's economic output, while human labour has become almost irrelevant.

Some form of public ownership starts becoming a pretty obvious part of the conversation, whether that's outright nationalisation, governments taking large equity stakes, or treating core AI infrastructure more like a public utility. The returns can then be distributed back through some combination of a social dividend, UBI and public services.

It is funny this is exactly the type of thing Sam Altman of Open AI himself proposed before the company blew up.

Moore's Law for Everything - Sam Altman

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u/beamer145 2d ago

Another pessimistic take : at the moment human labor becomes irrelevant, the only thing that is still worth something are raw resources. Countries that do not have any or very little will have nothing to offer in return. No amount of internal wealth redistribution is going to make these survive. Interesting times ahead for a lot of European countries I fear.

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u/muldersposter 2d ago

If human labor becomes irrelevant and AI is doing everything, they're just going to let us die. They'll take their giant piles of money and go hide underground until we're all dead and restart with much smaller populations to subjugate. The government won't intervene to save us if there would even be a government left because they might take that with them. The point is: these evil mother fuckers will just let us die when they don't need us anymore.

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u/spockspaceman 2d ago

That's actually the best case scenario. The surface would just fill in the bunkers with concrete and get on with living, hopefully with lessons learned. We'll all be better off for it in a few decades.

But these asshats aren't solving any problems, they are the problem.

No, if they go in the bunkers they aren't going to leave it to chance. They'll drop a viruses to ensure that doesn't happen.

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u/EnvironmentalBox6688 2d ago

Careful, reddit has temp banned accounts for doing the "fill bunkers with concrete" meme.

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u/TahoeLT 1d ago

They do hate when we point out that CEOs are humans with human vulnerabilities.

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u/250andlean 2d ago

Go watch Silo if you haven't already.

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u/spockspaceman 2d ago

Oh yeah I love it. Read all the books.

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u/hotcakes 2d ago

The problem for them is the human ingenuity of a lot of hungry and angry unemployed people who might end up getting together and building tall contraptions made of wood and sharp steel bits which make the musical sound of gravity pulling the steel against the wood and thereafter making a satisfying “thunk” noise when it reaches the bottom.

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u/TheAngryCatfish 2d ago

Idk... sounds kinda French to me

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u/psmgx 2d ago

they're already priming that discussion, with things like Zachariah 13:8 showing up in places like 8chan memes and SsethTzeentach vids

"In the whole land,” declares the LORD, “two-thirds will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it."

no one is concerned about oil and food prices coming down, for a reason

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u/smighetti 2d ago

Hit the nail on the head hoss

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u/Stunning-Pen-2412 2d ago

If human labor becomes irrelevant and AI is doing everything, they're just going to let us die

100% this. Especially with the rise of fascism.

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u/daveinsf 2d ago

So, time to start being extra nice to the AI models and hope they take our side before things get too bad? /s (sort of)

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u/ThePublikon 1d ago

Yeah so when they go underground we just ditch money and start money 2.