The thoughtful objections have not been against the idea as such, but mostly against the proposal that a board of investors or government officials would decide

The thoughtful objections have not been against the idea as such, but mostly against the proposal that a board of investors or government officials would decide who is good enough. That would indeed a problem - startups that VCs or government approve would likely be the ones immitating the previous big thing, rather than building the next big thing. But I think a board is not necessary. In my opinion, all that's needed is that the founders 1. have bachelor's degrees, 2. register a corporation, 3. start with at least $X in the company account. The value of X is up to debate, but it should not matter which investors they received the money from. Details can be worked out.