The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism [Paperback]

Robert B. Reich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 4, 1992

There is no longer such a thing as an American economy, say Robert Reich at the beginning of this brilliant book.  What does it mean to be a nation when money, goods, and services know no borders?  What skills will be the most valuable in the coming century? And how can our country best ensure that all its citizen have a share in the new global economy?  Robert B. Reich, the widely respected and bestselling author of The Next American Frontier and The Resurgent Liberal, defines the real challenge facing the United States in the 21st century in this trail-blazing book.  Original, readable, and vastly informed, The Work of Nations is certain to set a standard for the next generation of policy-makers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This stimulating treatise urges Americans to prepare for a newly emerging global economic order.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

According to Harvard economist Reich, author of The Resurgent Liberal ( LJ 8/89), we are going through a historic transformation that is rearranging the politics and economics of the 1990s and the 21st century. Economies are no longer simply national in scope but global, rewarding the most skilled around the world with ever greater wealth while consigning the less skilled to declining standards of living. He sees the global work forces as already divided into three groups: routine producers (e.g., data processors), in-person servers (e.g., librarians), and symbolic analysts who manipulate symbols for large profits (e.g., financial wizards). In 1989, these analysts comprised about one-fifth of the population of the United States, but they earned more than half the income. As the rich get richer and the rest get poorer, Reich urges a national recommitment to the productivity and competitiveness of all citizens. This is highly recommended for all academic and public libraries.
- Jeffrey R. Herold, Bucyrus P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 331 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (February 4, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679736158
• ISBN-13: 978-0679736158
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #100,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic economic model for the Global Economy, December 30, 1999

By 

Patrick W. O'Hara "taparaho" (Salt Point, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism (Paperback)

Many of us outside of the manufacturing sector have not yet seen the changes that the global economy has in store for us.

In his economic model, Reich points out the "vestigial thought" of the American corporation -- which today consider themselves "global" with no ties to its home country. His point is that America as a nation should welcome foreign investment if it will provide jobs to Americans. The global economy, as he models, is comprised on global webs, with knowledge workers with ideas in the center, surrounded by support services that add global economic value and bring concepts and products to fruition.

He also segments labor in the global economy into three catagories. Symbolic Analysts (or knowledge workers) who have the greatest chances for success, in-person services which are not readily suceptable to downward wage pressures, and routine producers which have already seen jobs shipped overseas to totalitarian areas with low wages.

More important than his global economic model is the subtlties that lie deep within the text. At first glance these may be missed, but a careful study reaveals several important caveats.

First that the global economy will likely mean less social mobility to the majority, with an ever increasing inequality in the distribution of wealth: Hence, the end of the middle class. This means that in a global economy, there may not be enough jobs paying living wages to support our already declining standards of living.

Second, Reich points out the improbability of of everyone becoming sybolic analysts -- which is evidence on the growing population of people today who can not even perform basic skills. He refers to a study by William Julias Wilson, writen in "When Work Dissapears."

Third, that as the rich get richer and further segment themselves from others, there will less of a connection between them and the poor -- a defacto end to the trickle-down economic theory. They also will continue having their own schools, private services etc, (their own private government) furthering the rift. He points out that the government has to take a careful approach to these people so as not to make them leave the U.S., taking with them the economy that revolves around them.

Reich half-heartedly makes a few suggestions about investing in training, education, and healthcare as a means of giving all people an equal economic opportunity, but that also may be "vestigial thought."

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Investing in people, March 25, 2001

By 

Pumpkin King - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism (Paperback)

Robert Reich is interested in labor. Not surprising. He's a former Secretary of Labor under Clinton's administration. He begins by telling us that corporations have lost their national identity. In other words, almost all American and foreign corporations consist of employees, investors, and machinery that are located all over the world, and so the traditional view that American economic progress being directly related to the profitability of American firms is no longer valid. So what then should be the economic goals of the state?

Three types of workers exist in Reich's thinking: routine producers, in-person servers, and symbolic analysts. Reich shows evidence that the symbolic analysts, who "solve, identify, and broker problems by manipulating symbols," are the winners in this age. The workers who are educated and can use their knowledge to supply a service will get the highest incomes. Those who have no knowledge to sell, who are engaged in routine jobs in factories or in-person servers such as waiters and cashiers will be left behind them.

So Reich proposes that education is of great importance, and devotes two chapters to "The Education of the Symbolic Analyst." It doesn't matter whether or not American firms, if definable, prosper. It is in the long term interests of the American people for the people to learn and be able to use that knowledge. If foreign firms come and employ Americans, good. The workers will still be Americans, and they will learn stuff in the process.

But not all Americans can be symbolic analysts, and perhaps not all symbolic analysts can be well off. Reich's main concern seems to be income inequality and the social attitudes of the symbolic analysts. He feels that we have lost a sense of national community as more and more symbolic analysts, who earn the most income, become less dependent upon the other workers who earn much less. If those who are fortunate do not feel obligated to those who are not, then what does that mean for America as a whole?

I don't feel that I gained much new information in reading this work. And though I read with interest, the economic arguments are not clearly stated (understandably, as this is written for the public). So, many claims were made and they make sense given the data and reasoning he provides, but it isn't a sturdy enough work for me to give more than three stars. Robert Reich takes a liberal view, but I disagree with other reviews that this book is drivel. One review comments on how the rich deserve to be rich for working hard and the poor, it is implied, are lazy and deserve to be somehow punished by low wages. Income disparity is a concern. Whether or not Reich's argument is sound and his data accurate, there is nothing wrong in sympathizing with the poor or thinking that government might serve some purpose in aiding them. There is much that is wrong in making general assumptions about the behavior of the poor and what they deserve. Another review says that Reich advocates strategic trade in which "we ought to use tariffs and subsidies to increase American firms' market shares in their fields." Reich does advocate subsidies to help the work force gain advanced skills, but he says, "it would draw no distinctions based on the nationalities of the firm's shareholders or top executives." Such subsidies would have little to do with "American firms," a notion he spends the first half of the book trying to erase.

Not great, not bad. Pick it up if you're interested in these topics.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ad Hominem, March 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism (Paperback)

It seems that stating disinformation as fact has become a way of life in America. A previous reviewer stated something to the effect that Robert Reich was not an economist. That reviewer could have been spared embarassment by first checking facts.

Reich graduated from Dartmouth and followed that with a law degree from Yale. Finally, he went to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and studied economics. In addition to being the Secretary of Labor he was a professor at Harvard and is now one at Brandeis.

As for the title the reviewer seems to dislike, Adam Smith's book was "Wealth of Nations." Modern economic theory accepts that work is the basis of wealth. Marx promoted that idea and Reich is using it in a word paly on the title of Adam Smith's work. What of it?

The book is mildly thought provoking and written for ease of reading. If work and labor are the basis of our economic wealth and health as a nation, hadn't we keep our eye on the education required to turn out the workers of tomorrow?

It's solid four but not a five.