Powering America Beyond The Age Of Great Stagnation

A recent book written by Tyler Cowen, an American economist and one of the top 100 global thinkers according to The Economist, is titled Average Is Over: Powering America Beyond The Age Of Great Stagnation. Cowen, chair of economics and a professor at George Mason University, creates a stark image of a future U.S. economy, in which most people rocket either toward the top or drift toward the bottom.
 
A thinning middle-class means it will be harder to muddle along with marginal skills or a soft work ethic, since a hollowed-out middle will no longer be able to shelter those who don’t have what it takes to make it to the top. Cowen says Americans will adapt. Many of society's lower earners will reshape their tastes, toward cheaper desires.
 
The author says the U.S. is unlikely to return to the easy prosperity of the past World War II era, which swelled the middle class and allowed millions of families to build wealth and save for retirement with little more than a strong back and a will to get ahead.
 
In short, the economy is undergoing structural change that’s in the process of creating a new normal — with new classes of winners and losers. Cowen says it will be tougher to get ahead in the future for three reasons:
 
1)    Companies are much more careful these days about taking on workers and committing to the cost of labor benefits and the problems sometimes caused by humans on the payroll.
 
2)    Globalization means there’s more international competition for jobs at all levels. Automation now (and increasingly in the future) allows many companies to replace people with technology.