David Goodhart

#193 - David Goodhart - AI Is Coming For The Graduate Elite

- AI threatens to displace graduate-level workers much as globalization displaced factory workers, potentially reshaping Britain's class system and political dynamics - The "Anywheres" (geographically mobile, university-educated liberal elite) have dominated policy for 30 years, marginalizing the "Somewheres" (rooted, place-based communities), fueling Brexit and populism as protest votes - Britain's political realignment moment in 2019 failed; the Tories promised "levelling up" and cultural representation but delivered mass immigration and economic stagnation instead - The state has lost the ability to execute policy because power was dispersed to regulators, courts, and non-state institutions post-1997, creating gridlock even where consensus exists (e.g., stopping small-boat crossings) - Economic productivity and a reformed tax system (land tax, lower capital gains tax, reduced regulation) are prerequisites for any political recovery; current burden-on-business is crushing entrepreneurship - Care work, family policy, and technical vocational training have been systematically undervalued while university expansion created surplus graduates with unrealistic job expectations