Dev.SN

Bill Gates: Prepare to be Assimilated

posted by janrinok on Monday March 17 2014, @08:03PM   
from the borg-revisited dept.

sl4shd0rk writes:

"Bill Gates says everyone needs to prepare to be out of work in 20 years due to Robots/software taking over most jobs. In preparation for this, Gates recommends people 'should basically get on their knees and beg businesses to keep employing humans' and reduce operating overhead for businesses by 'eliminating payroll and corporate income taxes while also not raising the minimum wage'. Bill Gates, you may recall, is the former CEO of Microsoft whose business acumen has brought the technology sector such things as Metro, Windows Phone and Xbox One.

BusinessInsider took a similar theme earlier this year."

• Re:He has acumen up the ying-yang Re:He has acumen up the ying-yang (Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Tuesday March 18 2014, @12:49AM

  by anubi (2828) on Tuesday March 18 2014, @12:49AM (#17929)

  I think Gates is spot-on when he refers to tax codes. The power to tax is also the power to either encourage, discourage, or destroy.

  One cannot blame water for running the way it does... always seeking downhill one way or the other. One cannot blame the wealthy for investing the way they do for the same reason ( assuming the wealthy, like the water, have no altruistic motives; they will follow the laws of nature ( or economics ) they exist in.)

  There are a lot of tax codes in place presently that reward hoarding and selfishness. One may find himself burdened not only by economic loss but also by having to prepare reams of paperwork and documentation to the government for doing something like trying to hire, yet the very same government may well encourage the investor to place his assets in things like hoarding real estate, patent trolling, banking services ( aka "adding liquidity to the economy by leveraging and juggling loans on top of loans" ). Then we have turkeys like Greenspan talking about yet more H1-B and outsourcing. I remember one group in Waco, Texas who tried to outsource the government.... the government did not like that very much, did they.

  But then, what does that tell you about the insight of men who never had to earn a dime in their lives the way most of us have to?

  I still have high hopes we as a public can resolve this at the polls instead of that mess the French had to resort to.

  --
  "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

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• Re:He has acumen up the ying-yang (Score: 1) by Qzukk on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:56AM

  by Qzukk (1086) on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:56AM (#18046) Journal

  One cannot blame the wealthy for investing the way they do for the same reason ( assuming the wealthy, like the water, have no altruistic motives; they will follow the laws of nature ( or economics ) they exist in.)

  The issue is that at some point, no matter how low you cut taxes, free labor from a robot or program paid for up front will be cheaper than paying continuously for labor from an employee. Given the modern capitalist's total aversion to capital investment right now, this won't happen anytime soon even if the tech existed, but at some point companies are going to look to upgrade their processes and they're going to ask how they can do it cheaper.

  Parent