Dev.SN ♥ developers
Sections
Dev.SN
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."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Bill Gates: Prepare to be Assimilated
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 1000 moderator points
| 96 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
I'm not a robot like you. I don't like having disks crammed into me... unless they're Oreos, and then only in the mouth.
-- Fry
(Score: 4, Insightful) by KingofBLASH on Tuesday March 18 2014, @06:28AM
Bill Gates is a student of Buffet (they have a friendship going back years) and one of Buffet's big things is that we should tax consumption not production. That way if you are contributing to the economy and creating jobs, you can create as many jobs as possible.
Buffet has pointed out that the taxes he pays on his (high end) beachfront houses are less than many middle class people pay.
In addition, you have the fact that there is A LOT of money spent trying to a) enforce the tax code b) figure out creative ways to get out of taxes.
Get rid of the income tax, you close all loopholes, and you make something simple enough that the average person can understand .
The idea is not madness and actually is supported by quite a few prominent economists. If you are a billionaire spending all kinds of money, the consumption should be taxed. And if you are a billionaire growing your wealthy by employing people, as you are a producer, that should be encouraged.
(Score: 1) by len_harms on Tuesday March 18 2014, @10:19AM
Effectively states are already moving to this model.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2012/0 517/Your-employer-may-be-pocketing-your-state-inco me-tax [csmonitor.com]
Then with a bit of http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/double-irish-w ith-a-dutch-sandwich.asp [investopedia.com]
You have companies effectively paying 0 and in some cases getting subsidized.
They just now have to employee a few people to take care of it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken _window [wikipedia.org]
The idea is not madness and actually is supported by quite a few prominent economists.
Companies are already doing this. As an individual I am effectively taxed for consumption already. As I pay before I even spend it. However, larger companies have more ability to 'dodge taxes'. Putting smaller companies at an even bigger disadvantage.
Gates is saying just get rid of the waste. A VAT sort of tax makes sense if you want to keep the gov around. Unless you start adding in exceptions. The second you add an exception someone will figure out a way to 'maximize' the value.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 18 2014, @11:36AM
Which is, of course, insane.
You can't just create jobs by producing willy-nilly. There has to be a market for the product or service, and that requires people with money, and that requires jobs. It's a feedback loop.
Gates seems to be laboring under the misapprehension that the rich "create jobs." They only do that by being consumers, but they don't consume as much as the millions of us non-millionaires shopping at Wal-Mart.
As Nick Hanauer put it [youtube.com], "I own three cars-- not three thousand."
(Score: 1) by strattitarius on Tuesday March 18 2014, @10:24PM
The problem with simplifying the tax code is that it is also a HUGE CREATOR of jobs. Think of how many lawyers, accountants, accounting firms, H&R blocks, etc. that are related to taxes. Not only that, most of what makes corporate accounting difficult is related to taxes, putting money in the proper "buckets", proving it was supposed to be in those "buckets", and other functions that would be pointless with out crazy tax laws. So take your accounting department (which computers have already cut in half) and cut them in half.
Slashdot Beta Sucks. Soylent Alpha Rules. News at 11.