After proposing a tax on robots, Bernie Sanders calls for a wealth tax on greedy and irresponsible tech billionaires
Bernie Sanders is attacking billionaires again and this time he’s calling for a national wealth tax on the rich, just days after warning of AI-driven job losses. He argues that as automation and corporate power increases, the ultra-rich will have to pay their fair share to protect working people.
Just a day after criticizing tech leaders over uncontrolled automation and calling for a tax on robots, US Senator Bernie Sanders is now calling out the super-rich for focusing on making money while hurting ordinary people. US senators are suggesting a wealth tax on billionaires and accusing the richest people of their greed, irresponsibility and indifference towards working people.
In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), the Vermont senator argued that extreme inequality in the country has reached extreme levels and that billionaires will eventually have to “pay their fair share.” His comments come amid a heated debate in the US over rapid advances in AI, automation and inequality caused by the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of a few.
“Yes: We need a wealth tax on billionaires,” Sanders wrote in his post. He also said the US is “living through a period of unprecedented and rising wealth and income inequality.” He said he strongly supports a grassroots effort to impose a 5 percent wealth tax on the approximately 200 billionaires in California worth a total of $2 trillion. According to Sanders, the initiative would “generate funds to prevent more than 3 million working-class Californians from losing the health care they have”.
Sanders has also called for a national wealth tax on billionaires. While he acknowledges the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship and says they should be respected, he criticizes the fact that too much power and money is being concentrated in the hands of large corporations. “We can and should respect innovation, entrepreneurship and risk-taking,” he wrote, “but we cannot respect the extraordinary levels of greed, arrogance and irresponsibility currently being displayed by much of the billionaire class.”
The senator’s latest comments come just days after his sharp criticism of AI-powered automation. Earlier, he had questioned tech billionaires on the uncontrolled growth of AI and prediction that it could replace a large number of human jobs. Sanders pointed out that even tech leaders like Elon Musk and Bill Gates have acknowledged that automation could bring massive disruption in the coming years. However, he questioned these leaders that if machines will do all the work then who will pay the people.
Sanders warns that without intervention, automation could leave millions of people with “no income” while corporations profit from replacing workers with machines that do not require wages, health care or Social Security.
After this, he demanded robot tax and said that if machines work then tax should be imposed on them. “Why would corporations like Amazon replace workers with robots? Very simple,” Sanders wrote in another post. “Robots do not need wages, health care, time off, sick leave, Social Security, Medicare or unemployment benefits. Perhaps it is time to tax robots and use the revenue generated to help working families.”