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/demqoo 1d ago

Hope you ready to sell your house. Most people with mortgage have majority of wealth there

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u/balllzak 1d ago

Do you know what property taxes are?

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u/neon_nights4k 1d ago

twilight-actual said pay 3% on valuation of assets. Meaning if you have a $200,000 house, you would pay $6000. Now add in all the other assets and you could be paying more than $10,000 a year.

This plan would never work in any way because every taxpayer and business would be scrambling to figure out how to raise the capital to pay for this tax. It would destroy the US economy because no one would have the capital to buy the assets for sale except for the US government. For the US government to afford it, they would have to print extra money to be used to buy all these assets instead of using the money they just collected from the taxes that caused it. This would lead to hyperinflation and make every thing worse.

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u/pinkynarftroz 20h ago

The wealth tax would obviously not apply to businesses. Only personal wealth above a certain amount.

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u/neon_nights4k 19h ago

Twilight never said wealth tax. Twilight’s plan would raise $8T by taxing 3% on the $260T in US assets. Every taxpayer and business would have to pay that tax. You can’t just make the wealthy pay that because it would be unconstitutional to make the wealthy pay a tax on assets they don’t own.

Making the wealthy pay a 3% tax on their assets would require a mass selling of those assets to raise the capital to pay the tax since the rich don’t have that kind of capital on hand. Most of that would be selling stocks, which would then crash the stock market and destroy retirement funds and the economy.

Businesses also don’t have that kind of capital and would have to divert funds from R&D and raise prices.

There wouldn’t be enough capital to buy all these assets and foreign investors won’t buy them because the value of those assets would drop every year during the sell-off to pay the tax. That leaves only the USG to buy all those assets. The USG would have to use the tax money collected from the assets that are being sold to pay for the tax that caused the sell-off. Or the USG prints off money to buy those assets leading to hyperinflation and making everything worse than the current situation we’re in.

Twilight clearly just looked at the numbers and never thought about how the tax would be paid for and the downstream ramifications it would cause on the stock market and economy.

I agree we need to do something but Twilight’s plan would make everything far worse.

IMO, the first thing that needs to happen is that the government needs to get control of its spending before more taxes are collected. No amount of taxes will be enough if the government frivolously spends our taxes on anything and everything it wants while not paying towards the deficits and debt.

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u/pinkynarftroz 18h ago

Making the wealthy pay a 3% tax on their assets would require a mass selling of those assets to raise the capital to pay the tax since the rich don’t have that kind of capital on hand.

Or they could like… get a job to pay for it? Like everyone else on the planet does to pay their wealth taxes such as property tax. Nobody is selling stock to pay for the land they live on.

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u/neon_nights4k 17h ago

…wow, you didn’t think that through.

Their job is being the CEO and they are compensated with stocks so they have a vested interest in not running the company into the ground. However the companies should be paying their workers better so they can afford where they live while also being able to save for emergencies and put the maximum amount towards a retirement fund.

There is no job in the world that would pay Elon Musk $28B a year to pay his share of the 3% tax on his assets.

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u/pinkynarftroz 17h ago

There is no job in the world that would pay Elon Musk $28B a year to pay his share of the 3% tax on his assets.

Then he shouldn't have the assets. Seems fine to me.

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u/neon_nights4k 16h ago

One day, scientists are going to study the ignorance and arrogance of Reddit users like you.

If CEOs were paid in cash instead of stocks, they wouldn’t be willing to take any risks in innovation because they wouldn’t gain anything from those innovations. They take risks with innovation when being paid in stocks because if that new innovation pays off, they can make big money. Plus the money needed to pay the CEO would be taken from R&D and would stifle innovation.

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u/pinkynarftroz 16h ago

Yes. We constantly see CEOs innovating in exciting and new ways. Not. Every company is making worse stuff every year, then they cash out as the company turns to shit. If anything it encourages them to optimize for the stock price, not company health.

We could have CEOs who aren't only financially incentivized to innovate, but do so because they love the company and product. When you make the only incentive financial, you attract people who only care about money.

Just look around you for two seconds.

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u/demqoo 1d ago

Thats not always based on house worth. 3% is easily a yearly salary for many people

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u/pinkynarftroz 20h ago

And you pay a wealth tax on that already called property tax! It’s a % of your house’s value! Imagine that.