Two things. I think he's right on that fear is a powerful motivator. The other big point he brings up very briefly is the difficulty of changing careers. These two things are very related because the 45-year old man in his example knows that skills training doesn't happen over night (or for free, often). To survive in a world where constant retraining is necesaary requires an education that prepares people to think critically, and unfortunately I don't see this happening in most schools today.