Average is Over - BOOKS.HCCP.ORG

Hardcover, 304 pages

English language

Published Aug. 19, 2013 by Dutton.

ISBN:: 9780525953739

(1 review)

Widely acclaimed as one of the world’s most influential economists, Tyler Cowen returns with his groundbreaking follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Great Stagnation.

The widening gap between rich and poor means dealing with one big, uncomfortable truth: If you’re not at the top, you’re at the bottom.

The global labor market is changing radically thanks to growth at the high end—and the low. About three quarters of the jobs created in the United States since the great recession pay only a bit more than minimum wage. Still, the United States has more millionaires and billionaires than any country ever, and we continue to mint them.

In this eye-opening book, renowned economist and bestselling author Tyler Cowen explains that phenomenon: High earners are taking ever more advantage of machine intelligence in data analysis and achieving ever-better results. Meanwhile, low earners who haven’t committed to learning, to making the …

Widely acclaimed as one of the world’s most influential economists, Tyler Cowen returns with his groundbreaking follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Great Stagnation.

The widening gap between rich and poor means dealing with one big, uncomfortable truth: If you’re not at the top, you’re at the bottom.

The global labor market is changing radically thanks to growth at the high end—and the low. About three quarters of the jobs created in the United States since the great recession pay only a bit more than minimum wage. Still, the United States has more millionaires and billionaires than any country ever, and we continue to mint them.

In this eye-opening book, renowned economist and bestselling author Tyler Cowen explains that phenomenon: High earners are taking ever more advantage of machine intelligence in data analysis and achieving ever-better results. Meanwhile, low earners who haven’t committed to learning, to making the most of new technologies, have poor prospects. Nearly every business sector relies less and less on manual labor, and this fact is forever changing the world of work and wages. A steady, secure life somewhere in the middle—average—is over.

With The Great Stagnation, Cowen explained why median wages stagnated over the last four decades; in Average Is Over he reveals the essential nature of the new economy, identifies the best path forward for workers and entrepreneurs, and provides readers with actionable advice to make the most of the new economic landscape. It is a challenging and sober must-read but ultimately exciting, good news. In debates about our nation’s economic future, it will be impossible to ignore.

1 edition

Anthony Burgess reviewed Average is Over by Tyler Cowen

Not even average in my opinion

2 stars

I don't know what I was expecting of this book, I seldom read that much into why a book is on my reading list. I get recommendations and if it looks interesting I will save it and probably read it months, if not even years later. This system works most of the time, it didn't this time around.

There are some interesting ideas in this book: The distribution of wealth (at least if we don't do anything about it, which the author says we won't), the distribution of work and the quality of it (same argument as above) and the way we will live (which has some very far fetched ideas).

The last point is one of the most stupid things about this book. He attests, that older people will end up living in the poorest neighborhoods, because it makes sense to live where it is cheapest if you don't …

I don't know what I was expecting of this book, I seldom read that much into why a book is on my reading list. I get recommendations and if it looks interesting I will save it and probably read it months, if not even years later. This system works most of the time, it didn't this time around.

There are some interesting ideas in this book: The distribution of wealth (at least if we don't do anything about it, which the author says we won't), the distribution of work and the quality of it (same argument as above) and the way we will live (which has some very far fetched ideas).

The last point is one of the most stupid things about this book. He attests, that older people will end up living in the poorest neighborhoods, because it makes sense to live where it is cheapest if you don't need to go to work. Am I missing something or is this just plainly stupid? You still care if you live in a bad neighborhood, even if you are old, why would you suddenly not? People still care today and they try to work towards that their whole life.

He substantiates this by saying, people don't care about living well: Cities in Switzerland have been voted most livable, yet some random poorer city in Alabama or something is bigger than those cities in Switzerland, so it must be that people don't care about good living conditions or else it would be full there. I can't imagine that this is what he really thinks, because of how stupid this idea is.

He also imagines that there will be so much lower tier and higher tier work (which seems true) and the middle class will vanish, because middle class jobs are vanishing. This all seems very believable with the gig economy and all those skilled personnel that is needed nowadays. He thinks that nothing will change in favor of unskilled workers, because there are so many skilled and rich ones that will make it so through votes. I can't believe how sure he is, that those that need to have 2 to 3 jobs just to stay afloat will take the hit without any protest or voting for social policies.

Lastly, he also assures that this will turn out for the better, that this is good, even though it will suck for some people. People will also turn more conservative for some reason, even though statistics tells the opposite, because of people moving to bigger cities.

Those are just some of the weird ideas, that's why I can't be sure if he really knows what he is talking about, even though I'm even less of an expert. He could be right on any of those, but man, his arguments were so weak, I even laughed out loud on that argument about cities in Switzerland vs some bigger poorer cities in the US.

Wouldn't recommend this book and I would like to know who recommended this to me.