Should the Robots That Take Your Job Be Taxed?

A Chinese factory replaced 90% of their human workers with robots and production rose by 250% ... while defects dropped by 80%.

Fascinating or terrifying?

The world is changing.

Some say change is the only constant ...  Others remind of death and taxes.

In this video,  Bill Gates says we should tax robots.

 

 

Are we about to treat robots as "electronic persons"?  It isn't unprecedented ... we already treat certain business structures like people in tax and legal matters.

But, where does it stop?  

If you tax robots ... what's the difference between a robot, an algorithm, a cotton gin, or printing press?

Taxing increased productivity could have happened at any time.

Are we ready to change the face of capitalism and society?

At the extreme, it raises a question, if production and efficiency can be raised without as many humans working, what will humans do?

This quickly leads to some far-fetched (but thought-provoking) ideas and conversations.  For example, recently Elon Musk (and this presidential candidate) proposed a Universal Basic Income.  The basic premise of this is that by giving people the minimum income necessary to survive, you free them up to do what they're passionate about.

Clever ... or crazy?

We live in exciting times.