Published by St. Martin's Press
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.
The Complacent Class in the Media
This Century Is Broken—David Brooks, New York Times
Economist Tyler Cowen Thinks Americans Are Too Complacent—Jeffrey Sparshott, Wall Street Journal
The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream—Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs
Dreaming Small: How America Lost Its Taste for Risk—Edward Luce, Financial Times
The Unseen Threat to America: We Don’t Leave Our Hometowns—Tyler Cowen, Time
The State of the American Dream— Ian Bremmer and Tyler Cowen, Charlie Rose
Perpetual Adolescence: American Life in the 21st Century—Kevin D. Williamson, National Review
Lazy Does It: How American Workers Got Lazy—Matthew Rees, Wall Street Journal
When the Pursuit of Happiness Becomes the Flight from Pain—David French, National Review
Upper Class Elites Might Hate Trump, but They Were Key to His Success—Ana Swanson, Washington Post
America's 'Complacent Class': How Self-Segregation Is Leading To Stagnation—Heidi Glenn, NPR
A Top Economist Says Americans Are Not Nearly as Ambitious or Innovative as They Think—Tyler Cowen, Quartz
The Complacent Class—Tyler Cowen and Brett McKay, The Art of Manliness
How America Gave Up on Change—Walter Frick, Harvard Business Review
The American Wealthy Have Been Redefining Social Status through a Practice Known as 'Countersignaling'—Tyler Cowen, Business Insider
Wake Up Already, America’s ‘Complacent Class’—Tom Ashbrook and Tyler Cowen, On Point on WBUR
Eat, Think, Light a Fire under the Complacent—Bryan Appleyard, The Times
Debating American Complacency—Tyler Cowen and Noah Smith, Bloomberg
How to Shake Up the Complacent Class: A Debate—Tyler Cowen and Noah Smith, Bloomberg
Tyler Cowen on Complacency, Immobility, and Stagnation—Tyler Cowen and David Beckworth, Macro Musings
Americans Have Become Lazy, and It’s Hurting the Economy—Heather Long, CNN Money