Bill Gates, speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, predicted that in the near future technology will progress such that many workers will become superfluous.

Said Gates, “Software substitution, whether it’s for or waiters or nurses … it’s progressing. … Technology over time will reduce demand for jobs, particularly at the lower end of skill set. …20 years from now, labor demand for lots of skill sets will be substantially lower.”

“I don’t think people have that in their mental model,” he says.

The richest man in the world also opposes raising the minimum wage, and believes that in order to prevent the social unrest that comes with mass unemployment the government should appeal to the better natures of large corporations by eliminating corporate and payroll taxes in order to encourage them to employ people they apparently won’t need.

In other news, Joseph Stiglitz is in the New York Times calling such “trickle down” economics a “myth.”