NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A wide-ranging, against-the-grain argument about the state of American
culture--the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal bestseller--now
in paperback with new material
"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.
