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The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream by [Cowen, Tyler]

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The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream Kindle Edition

by Tyler Cowen (Author)

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A Wall Street Journal and Washington Post Bestseller

"Tyler Cowen's blog, Marginal Revolution, is the first thing I read every morning. And his brilliant new book, The Complacent Class, has been on my nightstand after I devoured it in one sitting. I am at round-the-clock Cowen saturation right now."--Malcolm Gladwell

Since Alexis de Tocqueville, restlessness has been accepted as a signature American trait. Our willingness to move, take risks, and adapt to change have produced a dynamic economy and a tradition of innovation from Ben Franklin to Steve Jobs.

The problem, according to legendary blogger, economist and best selling author Tyler Cowen, is that Americans today have broken from this tradition—we’re working harder than ever to avoid change. We're moving residences less, marrying people more like ourselves and choosing our music and our mates based on algorithms that wall us off from anything that might be too new or too different. Match.com matches us in love. Spotify and Pandora match us in music. Facebook matches us to just about everything else.

Of course, this “matching culture” brings tremendous positives: music we like, partners who make us happy, neighbors who want the same things. We’re more comfortable. But, according to Cowen, there are significant collateral downsides attending this comfort, among them heightened inequality and segregation and decreased incentives to innovate and create.

The Complacent Class argues that this cannot go on forever. We are postponing change, due to our near-sightedness and extreme desire for comfort, but ultimately this will make change, when it comes, harder. The forces unleashed by the Great Stagnation will eventually lead to a major fiscal and budgetary crisis: impossibly expensive rentals for our most attractive cities, worsening of residential segregation, and a decline in our work ethic. The only way to avoid this difficult future is for Americans to force themselves out of their comfortable slumber—to embrace their restless tradition again.

Length: 254 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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Product details

File Size: 1259 KB
Print Length: 254 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (February 28, 2017)
Publication Date: February 28, 2017
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B01JGMCCCQ
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

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Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,841 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #58 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Business & Money > Economics > Economic Conditions
- #59 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Business & Money > Economics > Economic History
- #229 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Sociology

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Lacking in focus

November 18, 2016

Format: HardcoverVine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

America has become complacent, says Tyler Cowan. We don't move as much as we used to, we're not as upwardly mobile as we used to be, and we're pretty much okay with that. Except when we're not. Only 50% of 18 year old Millenials have a drivers' license, down from 83% a few decades ago. A frighteningly large percentage of young African American men are in prison. Cowen's narrative jumps around like this. We're comfortable in our complacency. There's a big resurgence of violent protest. There's a massive amount of uncounted productivity in the Internet, or maybe there isn't.

If we are complacent, as the title of this book suggests, why is this the case? Cowen tosses out a number of idea, and then around page 159 he narrows in on an answer to both the question of complacency and that of shrinking productivity: Government is consuming more and more of our resources in support of creating the complacent, risk-free life that an increasing number of Americans seem to want. Like many critics Cowen looks to de Tocqueville, who warned of the collapse of American democracy as the drive of immigrants and pioneers become diluted through generations. It's the immigrants, people who took risks to get here, who are driving innovation and growth now.

But all this is changing, Cowen says. A complacent society is not a stable society. What's coming is chaos and realignment, although why this is coming is a bit vague; "Or if you wish to put the point in the language of financial economics," says Cowen, " the possibility of cyclical patterns in history is right now the single biggest source of systemic, undiversifiable risk." In other words, change is coming because there are cycles that drive change. But cycles are effect, not cause. They're the sign of a pattern driven by some underlying dynamic, and Cowen is a bit vague on this.

Seriously, I'm not sure what to think about this book. Cowen throws around a lot of interesting facts and observations, but his narrative jumps around and lacks focus; I had to force myself to keep reading. There's not much that's terribly original or insightful. One newspaper reviewer states in their review that "Tyler Cowen may well turn out to be this decade's Thomas Friedman," which is certainly damning with faint praise, as Friedman is the master of breathlessly presenting the obvious.I came to this book with high expectations, based largely on his reputation, but I was disappointed by what I read.

0Comment 153 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

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Raymond E. Pinard

Concerned

May 15, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Great book for those interested in demographics, generational change, economics, etc.

0Comment 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

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Amazon Customer

Five Stars

April 26, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Excellent book. I'm a vocational psychologist and this book has significant meaning for workers.

0Comment 4 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

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Amazon Customer

To the point

April 8, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I love a book that gets straight to the point with a minimum of filler. Whether you agree with Tyler's thesis or not, he doesn't waste your time.

0Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

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dougbo

Timely, excellent systems thinking.

March 24, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Awesome analysis with a thoughtful conclusion. Tyler Cowen is one of the premier systems thinkers of our time. These are the challenges we need to be addressing.

0Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

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Greg Afuso

An apologetic for Average is Over?

June 1, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Not sure that the solution to a rudderless ship is better oars.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

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daniel guerra villarreal

This book would have benefited greatly by the use of visual aids in the form of graphs and such to represent data.

May 25, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This book would have benefited greatly by the use of visual aids in the form of graphs and such to represent data. At times there were many figures crammed into a single sentence or paragraph making it hard to put in to perspective. Any how, it's an ok read. Most reader's customers reviews are accurate in their description of the book being somewhat "unfocused".

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HL Atkins

Nice read. Good lluck at the failings of my ...

May 30, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Nice read. Good lluck at the failings of my generation. I think "COMING APART" by Charles Murray is better but this makes a nice companion piece.

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Most recent customer reviews

Bradley Bevers

One of the best

Vine Customer Review of Free Product

One of the best books I have read in past couple years. Cowen is one of the smartest people making predictions right now, and what he says is worth listening to.Read more

Published 2 months ago

Andres

One Star

Boring and repetitive, it talked many times about the same idea.

Published 3 months ago

Thomas K. Seibold

Insights and blind spots

I enjoyed the author's delineation of various historical and societal societal trends, but overall I found this an odd and ultimately unfocused little book.Read more

Published 3 months ago

Fenton Angell

Some reasonable thoughts.

Made some good points but left you with a OK now what feeling.

Published 3 months ago

H. D. Prescott, Jr.

Five Stars

To support the curriculum

Published 4 months ago

Hmiller6181

Five Stars

Fantastic book; a must read for everyone.

Published 4 months ago

Rick R in Atlanta

Five Stars

very thought provoking.

Published 5 months ago

Amazon Customer

Read this book!

A good, fact filled read. I especially appreciate Cowen's liberal use of data in the first half of the book setting the stage for the remainder.Read more

Published 5 months ago

applephx

Lost Train of thought

There are many ideas but they are sporadic and only loosely connected by shallow logic. Some information seems out of context, some makes sense but mostly it seems incomplete.Read more

Published 5 months ago

Glenn P.

The author clearly needs to better organize his thoughts if he hopes to present any ...

Had high hopes for the book given its intriguing title and Cowen does bring up some interesting questions, but all in all the book is very poorly written.Read more

Published 5 months ago

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