The complicating variable not addressed in this piece is the impact technological labour substitution is having on conventional economic policy initiatives.

Sure, there are some "low-skill" jobs that will continue to require workers for decades but technology is eroding the need for wide swaths of them as business continues to substitute machine labour, A.I. and automation as their cost declines rapidly. This is one of the major reasons for the increase in wealth and income inequality during the past few decades.

This is a paradigm shift. The concepts of "retraining and upskilling" reflect thinking that's no longer relevant or effective.

Witness President Biden's comment during his campaign about training everyone to be "coders" when increasingly, technology is "learning" how to "program" itself without the need of a human brain to do so.

Until we start looking at the workforce as being in the midst of a wholesale transition from human to machine our policy choices can only make things worse. We need to realize the momentum of change is too great and begin rethinking the value of human endeavour beyond the jobs we can achieve and the paychecks we can earn.