Is it Right to Tax Robots?

It's always interesting when big tech and politics come together, especially when it's something that could seemingly protect workers. In this case, that's exactly what happened. Bernie Sanders and Bill Gates are on the same page with robots and agree that the government should tax the robots replacing workers. The logic is that if workers are going to be replaced by a robot, then the industries that are doing so will need to have different taxes and regulatory policies to ensure that the staff replacement doesn't become an excuse to get rid of "human operated jobs" altogether because a robot would be cheaper.

First and foremost, what are the targeted robots of this? For Bernie Sanders it seems to be robots replacing people doing jobs that have traditionally been performed by people such as wait staff, chefs, and delivery personnel. It may be jarring to walk into a restaurant and be seated and served by a robot only to discover that a robot made your meal as well. What's less jarring are drone based deliveries since that is something that some companies have already started to do.

What is the advantage to using robots? In theory there will be less error and things will move faster with robots and in addition to that, robots don't need breaks, sleep, paid time off, or benefits. There would also be a standard quality of food and service, as both of those things could be hardcoded settings. Can you imagine? The perfect medium rare steak every single time because the robot has been programmed with exactly what to do down to the exact heat and resting time for the optimal steak texture.

However, something robots do need is maintenance, so there would still have to be some sort of (more than likely expensive) servicing team that would be able to handle replacement and repair. If you're a programmer, rest easy because what Bernie Sanders is proposing does not seem to impact ETL work (or automation related work in general so your AIs are safe too).

Is there a chance the government may back some sort of robot tax in the future? The answer is "potentially." It would make sense for the government to want to put something in place such that they are still able to capitalize on income taxes that they would otherwise have. However, if organized into a bill, the tax plan for robots would need to be specific. In other words, is it going to be for newer technology, or will it be something that will impact existing technology?

Something else to take into consideration is the definition of what a robot worker is and which industries will be impacted. This may sound simple, but think about it-does it make sense for you to have to file a Roomba as an employee, a machine in a factory, or a self checkout machine? Something else to consider is whether or not there should be tiers for robots that get taxed. For example, should a robot that cleans be taxed the same way as a robot designed to make something? 

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