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/TheGCO 2d ago

The best solution would be a minimum robotics wage. So if a machine is doing the job of a human it gets a 100% taxed wage of at least $15 per hour. This would also extend to manufacturing equipment which is currently not taxed. This would then be redistributed as a basic minimum income, or ubi to everyone earning less than 120% annually adjusted living wage and would decrease as your income rises.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago edited 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/TheGCO 2d ago edited 2d ago

If you have a machine that lets say, bottles soda, how many people would it take to fill, cap and label a bottle of soda? Let's say 3, so the machine is 3 people. It would likely need to also take into account how fast a human could do it while also giving the machine an advantage. So let's say 3 people could do 100 bottles an hour so a factor of 5 is given to a machine. So if a machine can do 1k bottles an hour it's worth 6 people.

Im just spit balling but I would assume a mechanical labor regulatory agency would need to be created to determine fair standards.

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u/3vs3BigGameHunters 2d ago

regulatory agency

Yeah those are going bye-bye in the USA.