Finding similarities in the thinking of hard-boiled businessman Donald Trump and entrepreneur-philanthropist Bill Gates would not be easy, but in…
Donald Trump (PHOTO: AFP)
Finding similarities in the thinking of hard-boiled businessman Donald Trump and entrepreneur-philanthropist Bill Gates would not be easy, but in their own different ways they do make common cause in protecting American jobs.
The “fixer” in the White House seeks to use American muscle in all possible ways against those who “steal” jobs and have paralysed traditional industries such as steel and automobiles by imposing heavy taxes on products they seek to sell in US markets. Gates also wishes to use taxes as a corrective, his target is the new range of robots that are increasingly ejecting human beings from the shop-floor.
Clearly both are worried about growing unemployment and its range of negative side-effects. A scary situation: one that illuminated the path from Trump Tower to the West Wing. And which simultaneously left “politician” Hillary hapless by the wayside, since her winning the “popular vote” proved no passport to the Oval Office. The Microsoft-man has his own brand of logic.
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The human worker would contribute to the exchequer income-tax, social-security tax, etc., so why should robots be exempt from such levies? It would require no artificial intelligence to fathom such reasoning. Something which would resonate across the world with those tasked with keeping governments out of the red.
Yet where Gates appears benign in comparison with ruthless Donald is that he desires that those displaced from the work-force are re-trained and redeployed in professions aimed at extending succour to the needy: helping the elderly in their daily chores, making life easier for working mums by taking care of children and so on. His scheme has twin objectives, filling a vacuum in support services, and simultaneously causing industry to take a re-look at automation.
Maybe Trump would accept that Gates had played an ace if informed that quite a few of the popular robots were produced outside the United States. It would be killing two birds with one stone.
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