Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Gates: Tax consumption to fix unemployment caused by technology [VIDEO]
The Daily Caller ^ | March 17, 2014 | Neil Munro

Posted on 03/18/2014 8:28:21 AM PDT by upbeat5

Billionaire software mogul Bill Gates has joined the growing chorus of tech experts who predict that low-skill Americans will face greater unemployment because more jobs are being done by software and robots.

The Microsoft founder, whose net worth is $76 billion, suggested the problem could be fixed by reducing taxes on employers and raising taxes on employees, via the reduction of payroll taxes and the addition of new federal consumption taxes.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bill; consumption; criminal; cronyism; gates; taxes
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-37 next last

1 posted on 03/18/2014 8:28:21 AM PDT by upbeat5
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: upbeat5
Those rich guys always no what's best for the rest of us, don't they?
2 posted on 03/18/2014 8:31:18 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upbeat5

What a jerk.

If he thinks he caused it, he should liquidate his entire wealth and contribute all of the proceeds to the Salvation Army.

What a POS, rich or not.


3 posted on 03/18/2014 8:32:25 AM PDT by old curmudgeon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upbeat5

Tax “consumption”....yeah...now that he has all HE needs...pity the young


4 posted on 03/18/2014 8:33:24 AM PDT by goodnesswins (R.I.P. Doherty, Smith, Stevens, Woods.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upbeat5

“...suggested the problem could be fixed by reducing taxes on employers and raising taxes on employees.”

Huh?


5 posted on 03/18/2014 8:34:29 AM PDT by Huskrrrr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upbeat5

There is something to his proposal to eliminate taxes on something society wants, more employment, and replacing that with consumption taxes. Although Gates speaks out of both sides of his mouth since he is a big proponent of bringing in millions of cheap foreign labor. Taking his views as a whole he wants the gov’t to cut taxes on employment making it easier for him to hire cheaper foreign labor.


6 posted on 03/18/2014 8:36:16 AM PDT by C19fan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upbeat5
predict that low-skill Americans will face greater unemployment because more jobs are being done by software and robots.

This is absolutely true. The rest is carp. What we need to do is get all levels of government off the back small businesses.

Many of these "low-skill" Americans would create their own jobs and small businesses if it weren't impossible to open up so much as a lemonade stand without the bureaucracy taking several pounds of flesh for each and every license and permit.

7 posted on 03/18/2014 8:36:22 AM PDT by Valpal1 (If the police can t solve a problem with violence, they ll find a way to fix it with brute force)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Why is it that Americans listen to people who have no background in the fields they are prescribing solutions for (e.g., Gates is not an economist; Gore is not a scientist)?They have no credibility yet we allow them to pontificate to us. The sheeple are truely gullible.


8 posted on 03/18/2014 8:36:24 AM PDT by Starboard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: upbeat5

I think we should switch to 4 10-hour days work week

I would do anythign for 3 day weekends each week

including have time to work on my startup businesses


9 posted on 03/18/2014 8:37:44 AM PDT by Mr. K (If you like your constitution, you can keep it...Period.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upbeat5

“The Microsoft founder, whose net worth is $76 billion, suggested the problem could be fixed by reducing taxes on employers and raising taxes on employees...”

How about instead we take Bill Gates’ $76 billion and give everyone who ever purchased a Microsoft product $10,000 per product for their pain and suffering. So if you suffered through Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows XP, and Windows 7, Bill Gates would be required to cut you a check for $40,000. Then any leftover money could be used to hire every out of work IT person to fix all the Microsoft products that are still messing with our daily lives. That is how you start to fix the economy.


10 posted on 03/18/2014 8:38:46 AM PDT by anonsquared
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Huskrrrr
. . . reducing taxes on employers and raising taxes on employees.

Why not? The problem is not that Bill Gates doesn't pay enough in taxes, it is that the proles consume too much. Why not stack them in high-rise cement Stalinesque style rabbit hutches so they can walk or take public transportation to work?

We only need a middle class to administer our Utopian bureaucracy anyway. No more than 10% of the populace to enforce the orders of the 1% of the elite should do it. < / sarcasm >

11 posted on 03/18/2014 8:43:37 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: upbeat5

Well since technology is the problem Tax the tech companies....


12 posted on 03/18/2014 8:45:35 AM PDT by Kozak ("It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal" Henry Kissinger)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upbeat5

Let’s hope this jerk never runs for public office. He could help solve the problem he sees by pulling all his products off the market. I think I would still be able to type and proofread my own letters without his help. I was able to do that before he was born.

He doesn’t see his contributions of wealth and influence in Common Core will accelerate the problem of unemployment? Heck, when Common Core gets done with students, it will take all day for a prospective employee to complete an aptitude exam; if one is even needed in today’s world.


13 posted on 03/18/2014 8:46:52 AM PDT by Thank You Rush
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Vigilanteman

I like that idea: All gov employees in gov housing on gov healthcare using gov transportation. Let them thoroughly taste what they produce.


14 posted on 03/18/2014 8:48:27 AM PDT by polymuser
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: anonsquared

“That is how you start to fix the economy.”

By failing at math?

I understand the ire, but the numbers don’t begin to add up.


15 posted on 03/18/2014 8:50:54 AM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Valpal1

I occassionally employ low skill workers.

But when I do, I have to be there or else, they wont work, and they will steal.

So alot of the time, I say to hell with it and do the job myself.


16 posted on 03/18/2014 8:55:07 AM PDT by staytrue
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum; upbeat5
Wow! These guys are so much smarter than us!

Traitors, complicit with the dems in the destruction of the Republic.

17 posted on 03/18/2014 8:55:53 AM PDT by Eagles6 (Valley Forge Redux)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: staytrue
True story. I worked for a Japanese multinational in a previous life which included construction sites in Indonesia.

There was always petty pilferage from the construction sites as work was in progress. It became so annoying that we hired guards at a little more then the going rate of $4 per day. The pilferage actually increases so we dismissed the guards and the pilferage returned to normal levels. Go figure.

18 posted on 03/18/2014 9:00:01 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Mr. K

I think we should switch to 4 10-hour days work week.”

My employees have been working 4 ten’s for a couple of years now and everyone loves it. Plus they have flex hours. Can start as early as 7 a.m. and as late as 8:30 a.m. Half work Tuesday to Friday and half Monday to Thursday. Allows for travel to/from outside of heavy traffic hours and they get more done in four ten hour days than they did five eight hour days. They can eat, drink and smoke at their desk if they want and most don’t take a lunch break but eat at their desk. Just works for everyone.


19 posted on 03/18/2014 9:05:44 AM PDT by Grams A (The Sun will rise in the East in the morning and God is still on his throne.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: staytrue

Which is why the “low skilled” need to be self employed. But as long as the barriers to self employment from government (regulatory schemes as well as taxes on working and saving) remain, most will remain unmotivated to being productive.

We really are headed toward a dystopian future of feral rabble walled off from the educated elite served by robots. The middle class will disappear.


20 posted on 03/18/2014 9:05:49 AM PDT by Valpal1 (If the police can t solve a problem with violence, they ll find a way to fix it with brute force)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-37 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson