Bill Gates revives the robot tax: make machines that replace workers pay income tax
LudovicCreator · x · 2026-09-20
Bill Gates renews his explosive proposal: if a robot or AI does your job, it should pay taxes like you. Proposals include a robot tax sized to the fired employee's would-be contributions, a tax on AI token usage, and human-reserved jobs (childcare, eldercare, justice, delivering medical diagnoses) — funding retraining and social protection as automation erodes labor tax revenue. In Europe it remains debate-only: the EU backed off in 2017 under industry pressure, no such tax exists, and economists including Summers call it taxing productivity, questioning what even counts as a robot in the AI era.
Related event: Bill Gates Revives Robot Tax Proposal for the AI Era(2 posts)→
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