Why it’s wrong to tax Tesla robots

One of the key moments of Tesla's TSLA AI Day in August 2021 was the unveiling of the Tesla Bot, a humanoid robot, highlighted by CEO Elon Musk. The introduction of robots by Tesla that could be used in a number of sectors could cause an old debate about whether robots should be taxed.

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft Corporation MSFT, said in 2017 that robots should be taxed if they take people's jobs.

If a human worker does $50,000 of work in a factory, that income is taxed, Gates said. If a robot comes in to do the same thing, you d think we d tax the robot at a similar level. The European Union said it would not support a robot tax. The EU said it was not in favor of taxing robots, as it would slow down progress and put European countries behind other countries around the world that do not plan to levy taxes.

Oren Etzioni told CNBC at the time that this is the wrong solution. The college professor argued that Gates would not have been against the idea of putting taxes on PCs that took clerical workers jobs away.

What happens if every country doesn't do this? Ford said that taxing robots could turn into a competitive issue, similar to what the EU said about losing a competitive advantage.

Elon Musk says that Tesla will make humanoids with the help of a prototype for next year.

Why It is Important: The debate of whether robots should be taxed was highlighted by Anthony Pompliano.

Bill Gates has come out multiple times and said robots should be taxed, Pomplliano said.

Pompliano spoke about Gates' decision to tax robots on his The Best Business Show, highlighting the European Union being against a tax years prior.

Pompliano told viewers that Gates wants to tax robots and Musk wants to send robots to Mars.

There are two different views of the world here. Musk suggested that the robots could be sent to Mars, replying to a user on Twitter.

Pompliano said that humans won't end up homeless and unemployed due to the rise of robotics in new job areas like factories. He said that many people were farmers for years and years before a shift put people in other jobs fields.

We should not tax the robots. Pompliano shared a graph showing the number of human bank tellers versus the rise of automated bank tellers ATMs Technology tends to create more jobs on aggregate rather than destroy jobs, which was a sector that was feared to lose jobs due to automation. Pompliano posted a video of Gates calling for taxes, and the businessman and NBA team owner Mark Cuban responded.

It is not just about replacement. Cuban tweeted with the hashtag TaxTheRobots that it was about generating revenues to minimize other tax increases.

We don't need more revenue. Pompliano said that the U.S. collects record federal income tax every year for a decade, but the deficit grows wider.

The Tesla robots are a work in progress and could be sold to the public next year. They could end up taking jobs from people like vehicle drivers and other sectors. There are areas of focus that have seen a shortage of workers.

Will Bill Gates support taxing the Tesla robots?