, Columnist
What's Wrong With Bill Gates' Robot Tax
Imposing added costs on new technology will slow growth and won't help people displaced by automation.
Cute? He's after your job, pal.
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Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates made a splash in a recent interview, when he suggested that robots should be taxed in order to help humans keep their jobs:
Gates is only one of many people in the tech world who have worried about automation and its threat to workers. YCombinator founder Sam Altman, for instance, is conducting an experiment with basic income -- a regular cash payment to all households. That policy has gained popularity across Silicon Valley, if not in the rest of the country.