Average is Over

Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation

Hardcover, 304 pages

English language

Published Aug. 19, 2013 by Dutton.

ISBN:
9780525953739

View on OpenLibrary

2 stars (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 …

1 edition

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 …