I have every sympathy, but zero belief, in the effectiveness of the proposals of this article.The author advocates a policy level response to guide technological advances in directions that will serve society and create good jobs. No one wants to see the catastrophe of the majority of humanity plunged into joblessness and poverty in short order. But arguments trying to show that these and other well intentioned proposals are destined to fail, risk looking like pessimism for the sake of it, or worse, bystanders willing on a car crash just for the spectacle. I will nevertheless make a couple of points against.



The first observation I would make is that the author appears to be groping towards some kind of new status quo, where a political and societal attitude change results in a situation where big government (what else?) incentivises technological development in directions that generate, (unsaid but implied, in perpetuity and millions of), good jobs. But that is not how this can possibly pan out, because technological advance is not going to pleataue, is it? So, these proposals, or large scale retraining, or a combination, buys you no more than a stay of execution, for I would say, a couple of decades tops. And then? Well, machines outstrip pretty much anything pretty much any humans can do (bar, for a while, 0.001% of humanity) - and this is the zinger - *keep going, receding into the horizon*. What is never clear to me is why most people, even in tech, can't see this. It's like asking a youngster to speculate on their own old age and death - a wilful blind spot.



The metaphysical stuff you can take it or leave it, but the type of practical questions that also arise are, how would you prevent local companies you have nudged down this route, from losing out on cost and innovation to external companies who don't participate in this model? Junk participation in WTO? Opt out of globalisation? Go back to early 1900s style isolationism? And in case anyone is under illusions that such competitors are not already ammasing at the gates, just take a look at the array of companies like Xiaomi, who are on the verge of unleashing global waves of deflation which are going to prove extremely challenging, not just for the Americans, but also to the Koreans, Japanese and even the Taiwanese.