Bill Gates said last winter that he thought robots taking away human jobs should be taxed.

While a great idea, there were a lot of naysayers who said it wasn’t feasible. Maybe. Maybe not. However, Business Insider had a feasible robot taxation article that I agree with and, therefore, think the answer is a realistic YES!

As for the “inequality” of all kinds of manufacturing robots that had replaced workers for decades now, like those in car factories and other mass manufacturing plants, leave them to be. There’s taxation on them already via the company, capital and/or products. The tax I’m talking about will be for robots replacing humans from some future date, which won’t be a practical answer, either, but I’ve got a suggestion for that.

Pick a date in the future where anyone displaced by robots after that will be taxed. The way to prevent cheating by companies to get rid of people before that date is that you have to have the robots in place and in actual production, not trials, before that date, and which has to be continuous for most of the year after. Otherwise, they will be taxed. Mention the date will be coming but also that it will be short notice once finalized, like a few months, to prevent more attempts at cheating the system.

These are very simple considerations, I realize. However, we have to start somewhere and then see what else we can think up to minimize potential loop holes and problems as time goes on, and some after implementation because it’s not likely everything will be foreseen. The idea is to predict the biggest impacting issues, not all the issues, beforehand.

What do you think?