It's not every day that a billionaire comes out in favor of a business tax, but Microsoft founder Bill Gates believes there is a way to compensate for the loss of revenue that happens when jobs are automated:  Tax the robots.

"If a human worker does $50,000 of work in a factory, that income is taxed," says Gates.  "If a robot comes in to do the same thing, you'd think we'd tax the robot at a similar level."

In an interview with the business and economic trends website Quartz, Gates says tax income from robots could be used to offset job losses by funding training for positions where humans are still needed, such as child and senior care.  There are risks and benefits:  Businesses might be less likely to replace humans to automation, slowing the inevitable to a rate that society could better manage.

"Some of it can come on the profits that are generated by the labor-saving efficiency there," Gates said.  "Some of it can come directly from some type of robot tax."

Those who would cut taxes and regulations no doubt see a robot tax as an obstacle to profit to innovation.  But being one of only a small group of people who deserve to be credited with the computer revolution that changed the way commerce and retail operates, Bill Gates is hardly a luddite.  He's still bullish on robots, but wants to do it right:

"What the world wants is to take this opportunity to make all the goods and services we have today and free up labor - let us do a better job of reaching out to the elderly, having smaller class size, helping kids with special needs," says Gates.  "All of those are things where human empathy and understanding are still very unique, and we still deal with an immense shortage of people to help out there."