"...some slowdown of globalization and automation is inescapable."



Yeah, I too can call spirts from the vasty deep, but will they come?

I applaud Professor Skidelsky's courage in recommending this, but we all know, it's not gonna happen. What is being suggested is preemptive action: slow down as we hurtle towards the cliff-edge, because it's becoming increasingly clear that automation is arriving far too quickly for any country to be able to adjust. But no-one is going to buy into a slowdown: not the African elites, who are only too keen to buy western tech and the African millions then without work can go spin, not the US who isn't going to give up it's preeminence by allowing Russia or China to catch up covertly under cover of a slowdown, not Russia or China who won't trust the West and would see this as an attempt to stifle their momentum, not Japan or South Korea who probably think they will get hurt the least by embracing automation.



No one trusts each other (with good reason!), and so we will steam along for the next few years, until the cataclysm starts bringing down a ton of existing pillars like Banking and money (just take a look at what Fintech is about to do to existing banking models), Social Models like state pensions, Regulation, Privacy, and the biggie - Taxation, because people who are not working don't generate tax for governments to gather. My best estimate for the cataclysm to begin in earnest is circa 2025.