Microsoft billionaire and quasi-monopolist Bill Gates recently proposed that we should tax robots. But should we really tax robots? Why not impose a tax on every line of computer code instead? Or why not tax computer programmers who sport beards? Via Wikipedia: “In 1698, Peter I of Russia instituted a beard tax to bring Russian society in line with Western European models. [1] To enforce the ban on beards, the tsar empowered police to forcibly and publicly shave those who refused to pay the tax. [2] Resistance to going clean shaven was widespread, with many believing that it was a religious requirement for a man to wear a beard. [3] The tax levied depended upon the status of the bearded man: Those associated with the Imperial Court, military, or government were charged 60 rubles annually; wealthy merchants were charged 100 rubles per year while other merchants, and townsfolk were charged 60 rubles per year; Muscovites were charged 30 rubles per year; and peasants were charged two half-kopeks every time they entered a city. [4]” Notice the “progressive” nature of this old Russian beard tax. (The footnotes are below the fold.)

Save me from Bill Gates…

Notes:

[1] Corson, Richard (2005). Fashions in Hair: The First Five Thousand Years (3 ed.). London: Peter Owen Publishers, p. 220.
[2] Worthington, Daryl (2016). History’s Strangest Tax? Peter the Great Puts a Price on Beards. New Historian. London: Forgotten Books.
[3] Walsh, Devan (2015), Analysis of Peter the Great’s Social Reforms and the Justification of the Reactions from the General Public.
[4] “Указ Императора Петра I — О бритiи бородъ и усовъ всякаго чина людямъ, кромѣ поповъ и дьяконовъ, о взятiи пошлины съ тѣхъ, которые сего исполнить не захотятъ, и о выдачѣ заплатившимъ пошлину знаковъ” [Decree of Tsar Peter I — Concerning Beards and Mustaches of Certain Ranks of People, Exempting Priests and Deacons, and Levying a Fee and Issuing a Mark to Those Who Do Not Wish to Shave] (in Russian).