Average Is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation

Widely acclaimed as one of the world’s most influential economists, Tyler Cowen returns with his groundbreaking follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Great Stagnation.

The widening gap between rich and poor means dealing with one big, uncomfortable truth: If you’re not at the top, you’re at the bottom.

The global labor market is changing radically thanks to growth at the high end—and the low. About three quarters of the jobs created in the United States since the great recession pay only a bit more than minimum wage. Still, the United States has more millionaires and billionaires than any country ever, and we continue to mint them.

In this eye-opening book, renowned economist and bestselling author Tyler Cowen explains that phenomenon: High earners are taking ever more advantage of machine intelligence in data analysis and achieving ever-better results. Meanwhile, low earners who haven’t committed to learning, to making the most of new technologies, have poor prospects. Nearly every business sector relies less and less on manual labor, and this fact is forever changing the world of work and wages. A steady, secure life somewhere in the middle—average—is over.

With The Great Stagnation, Cowen explained why median wages stagnated over the last four decades; in Average Is Over he reveals the essential nature of the new economy, identifies the best path forward for workers and entrepreneurs, and provides readers with actionable advice to make the most of the new economic landscape. It is a challenging and sober must-read but ultimately exciting, good news. In debates about our nation’s economic future, it will be impossible to ignore.

• The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream
• The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will( Eventually) Feel Better
• The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership
• Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals
• Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work that Lasts
• The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King
• Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
• Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son
• Letters from a Stoic (A Penguin Classics Hardcover)
• Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman