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The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream Hardcover – February 28, 2017

by Tyler Cowen (Author)

80 customer reviews

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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.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“[The Complacent Class] provides an open invitation for the reader to think deeply.” ―Derek Thompson, The Atlantic

“‘The Complacent Class' is refreshingly nonideological, filled with observations that will resonate with conservatives, liberals and libertarians. ... a useful corrective to the conventional wisdom that American ingenuity, sooner or later, will revive a low-growth economy.” ―The Wall Street Journal

“One of the most important reads of the new year.” ―National Review

"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

"Tyler Cowen is an international treasure. Endlessly inventive and uniquely wide-ranging, he has produced a novel account of what ails us: undue complacency. No one but Cowen would ask, 'Why Americans stopped rioting and instead legalized marijuana.' He admires risk-taking, and he likes restlessness, and he thinks the United States needs lots more of both. Don't be complacent: Read this book!"--Cass R. Sunstein, Harvard University, and author of #Republic: Divided Democracy in the Age of Social Media

"A book that will undoubtedly stir discussion"--Kirkus

Praise for The Great Stagnation:

"Cowen’s book… will have a profound impact on the way people think about the last thirty years."―Ryan Avent, Economist.com

"Tyler Cowen may very well turn out to be this decade's Thomas Friedman."--Kelly Evans, The Wall Street Journal

About the Author

TYLER COWEN (Ph.D.) holds the Holbert L. Harris chair in economics at George Mason University. He is the author of a number of explanatory and text books, including The Complacent Class, as well as writing the most read economics blog worldwide, marginalrevolution.com. He has written regularly for The New York Times and contributes to a wide number of newspapers and periodicals.

Product details

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st Edition edition (February 28, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1250108691
ISBN-13: 978-1250108692
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.9 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 80 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #96,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #216 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Sociology > Class
- #321 in Books > Business & Money > Economics > Economic Conditions
- #323 in Books > Business & Money > Biography & History > Economic History

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Many thought-provoking ideas

July 2, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I am quite surprised (pleasantly so) by some of the ways Tyler Cowen's thinking has developed. This latest book shows a greater amount of intellectual intellectual development than his previous The Great Stagnation. Most pleasing to me was his embrace of cyclical views of history in his final chapter. Though I would like to have seen an appreciation on his part for Peter Turchin's books on patterns in history.

Tyler thinks we're too complacent and too sheltered in our cocoons. He thinks our society is becoming too averse to change. This shows up as NIMBY zoning ordinances, few job switches, less entrepreneurship, and greater willingness to accept the established order. Safe spaces at colleges can be seen as a manifestation of this phenomenon.

As complementary reading for this book I would recommend Peter Turchin's War & Peace & War as an excellent intro to recurring patterns in history. I would also recommend Bill Bishop's The Big Sort about how Americans are migrating to live near people who think like them and live like them.

Cowen does a fairly good job of bringing up many contemporary political issues while not betraying a strong partisan bias. Though it's clear he's trying to pitch his ideas more to appeal to a left-leaning readership. At points his own willingness to stay within the boundaries of politically correct thought places limits on his ability to find and explain patterns. But keep reading through those sections. He gets back to very worthwhile insights in later sections.

What disturbs me about this book is that Tyler has reached a number of conclusions similar to mine about cyclical history but by his own different intellectual path. This unfortunately increases my own assessment of the odds that I'm right to expect a bumpier and possibly much more tragic future.

4 people found this helpful

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COMPLACENT ABOUT AMERICAN DECLINE

September 1, 2018

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I think Cowen has hit the nail on the head by saying complacency is probably America's biggest problem. The title mentions one complacent class but he explains that means all classes (upper, middle, lower) constitute one complacent class. I think the real problem is that the elite class is complacent and the other two are resigned to the system this class has created.

The elite class does not care how big the trade deficit is or how big the national debt is. It does not care how many legal and illegal immigrants enter America. All it cares about is how it can make a profit from this system and increase its wealth. It is complacent about the decline of America as long as it can profit from the decline. Cohen identifies the first big shock that began the decline as the Arab oil embargo of 1973 which quadrupled gasoline prices overnight. This increase in energy prices then created the inflation which has continued to today. People first responded with an increase in women entering the work force to maintain family real incomes. When this was not enough Americans went heavily into debt to maintain their standard of living. This indebtedness has only gotten worse since then.

Meanwhile the increase in energy prices hurt profits and big business responded with all the policies we see today. These include accelerated automation, outsourcing jobs overseas, and bringing in cheap foreign labor to displace American workers. The result has been that the elite class has been able to increase its wealth while the middle and lower classes have endured flat real wages for over 40 years. Those not working have gone on welfare.

America has had a continuing trade deficit for over 40 years which has cost trillions. This deficit and the government programs for the victims of elite policies has been paid for with a combined national debt (government, business, personal) which is approaching $70 trillion. This does not worry the elite class which apparently thinks this system can continue indefinitely or at least as long as it is around.

The elite class which runs this country consists of six main groups. These are big business, the media, academia, government bureaucrats, unelected judges, and politicians. The last group is the only one theoretically under voter control but the main objective of about half the politicians is to support the other five groups and be rewarded accordingly.

The role of big business has been to design the current system. The media and academia are the propaganda departments of this system. Government bureaucrats increasingly run the country and unelected federal judges are there to step in when the politicians or voters get out of line. The politicians have basically enacted the laws necessary to keep the system going. All these groups are well paid and thus benefit from the forty year decline of America.

This whole scenario was upset when voters rebelled and elected Trump instead of the establishment candidate. The result has been a concerted effort by the elite class to destroy the Trump presidency and teach the voters who is in charge. The only group still holding out is the GOP but its resolve is questionable.

Notice how adamant the business-news community has been about opposing Trump's efforts to reduce our trade deficits. Nearly every day there are stories about how tariffs will "hurt" American consumers. There is no acknowledgement that maybe Americans can start producing the affected products and that competition will drive down prices. Of course the real ones hurt by decreased imports will the businesses, especially Wall Street, which are dependent on them for profits. Big business has now created an economy which is dependent on a growing trade deficit.

One thing that has become increasingly clear is how federal bureaucrats have colluded to reverse the results of the election. The main players are bureaucrats in the DOJ, FBI, and CIA, all supported by most of the media. Their main objective seems to be to show that they run the country and voters better catch on. Of course they have to do it by manipulating legal concepts and finding something that can be plausibly ascribed to Trump as a crime. This is where the current situation stands.

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A Lot of Interesting Thoughts

April 23, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Cowen's work here is engaging and interesting. The challenge is that there are a lot of questions raised here that don't have good answers or, in many cases, answers at all. For example, the social and economic effects of sorting - in all sorts of areas of life - present a clear challenge to many democratic ideals, but it isn't at all clear that there is much to do except buckle in and enjoy the ride.

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