San Francisco might soon tax robots, but who does it benefit?

When Microsoft co-founder (now billionaire philanthropist) Bill Gates spoke about a robot tax, San Francisco city supervisor Jane Kim heard him -- or, at least, she read about it. Now, Kim has been pushing for a robot tax in the home state of Silicon Valley, and she's been up and about talking to the leaders of the tech industry, various labor groups throughout the state, and to public policy makers figuring out how best to implement a robot tax. But what does it mean to tax robots? For the ordinary worker, the tax one pays the government gets spent on various programs that (ideally) ends up servicing the tax-paying individual -- be it as an infrastructural project, through social services, or even as salary for public servants. Instead, it would benefit the ordinary human worker whose job was taken over by an intelligent machine.