Average Is Over
Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation
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3.9 • 16 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Renowned economist and author of Big Business Tyler Cowen brings a groundbreaking analysis of capitalism, the job market, and the growing gap between the one percent and minimum wage workers in this follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Great Stagnation.
The United States continues to mint more millionaires and billionaires than any country ever. Yet, since the great recession, three quarters of the jobs created here pay only marginally more than minimum wage. Why is there growth only at the top and the bottom?
Economist and bestselling author Tyler Cowen explains that high earners are taking ever more advantage of machine intelligence and achieving ever-better results. Meanwhile, nearly every business sector relies less and less on manual labor, and that means a steady, secure life somewhere in the middle—average—is over.
In Average is Over, Cowen lays out how the new economy works and identifies what workers and entrepreneurs young and old must do to thrive in this radically new economic landscape.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Economist Cowen's muddled follow-up to The Great Stagnation, is mired in the incantation that human intuition must be sublimated to computer algorithms if we are to overcome America's dearth of innovation which the author blames for our shrinking economy. He glibly dismisses chronic unemployment with the statement that these "regular losers" were going to become obsolete anyway, but the good news is that, in his cheerfully libertarian laissez-faire economic model, costs will plummet as automation eliminates workers, and corporations pass the savings to consumers. What is left for human workers is a vision in which they toil in submissive tandem with machines, providing their scant human abilities to augment the superior judgment of computers. Philip K. Dick could not have crafted a more surreal vision than Cowen's picture of a Siriesque consultant directing our choices in everything from love to medical care. Unfortunately, Cowen relies upon chapter after chapter about computerized chess ("What Games Are Teaching Us") as support for his arguments, and neglects to provide evidence of how anyone's life will become better, or how prosperity can emerge from this approach.
Customer Reviews
An enjoyable explanation, and a call for the Young Professional.
Being a early 20's professional is a difficult field to meander through. Average Is Over is the call to arms of a generation who looks saddened at the news they will have a lower living standard than their parents. It takes assumptions at times, but does so to drive a point. All together an enjoyable read. I will take these predictions to heart for the development of my skill set.