Eliminate jobs tax for workers to compete with AI, says Sunak - BBC

Rishi Sunak, former prime minister and current adviser to Anthropic and Microsoft, has popped up to suggest eliminating National Insurance to make hiring humans more attractive, because apparently the solution to AI-induced job displacement is to turn the tax code into a bidding war against the machines. He told the BBC that 'concerns from graduates looking for entry level jobs were justified,' which is a bit like a firefighter arriving with a bucket of water after the house has already burned down, especially coming from a man whose corporate patrons are busily building the inferno. It’s a masterclass in political theatre: the ex-leader, now safely ensconced in the AI-industrial complex, offers a tax tweak while the structural shifts he helped enable roll on unabated.

Sunak’s proposal hinges on the idea that making labour cheaper will somehow outcompete AI’s relentless drive toward efficiency, a notion that feels about as sturdy as a paper umbrella in a hurricane. He’s essentially advocating for a subsidy on human frailty in a market increasingly obsessed with silicon perfection, all while his own affiliations suggest a rather more conflicted stance on the matter. One can almost hear the boardroom chuckles: 'Let’s cut taxes on workers so they can afford to buy the products our AI makes redundant' — it’s a neat, circular logic that neatly absolves anyone of actual responsibility.

This is the same regulatory gap we’ve seen before, where policy lags so far behind capability that suggestions like Sunak’s feel less like solutions and more like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The man who once helmed a government now advises firms at the bleeding edge of the technology, yet his big idea is a fiscal fiddle while the foundations crumble. It’s a perfect snapshot of our era: elites offering bandaids for bullet wounds, all while keeping a steady hand on the trigger. Cheers to that.