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

by Tyler Cowen
Average Is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation cover
Good Books rating 4.0
Technical
  • ID: 86
  • Added: 2025-09-02
  • Updated: 2025-09-02
  • ISBN: 9780698138162
  • Publisher: Penguin
  • Published: 2013-09-12
  • Reviews: 3

Renowned economist and author of Big Business Tyler Cowen brings a groundbreaking analysis of capitalism, the job market, and the growing gap between the one percent and minimum wage workers in this follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Great Stagnation. The United States continues to mint more millionaires and billionaires than any country ever. Yet, since the great recession, three quarters of the jobs created here pay only marginally more than minimum wage. Why is there growth only at the top and the bottom? Economist and bestselling author Tyler Cowen explains that high earners are taking ever more advantage of machine intelligence and achieving ever-better results. Meanwhile, nearly every business sector relies less and less on manual labor, and that means a steady, secure life somewhere in the middle—average—is over. In Average is Over, Cowen lays out how the new economy works and identifies what workers and entrepreneurs young and old must do to thrive in this radically new economic landscape.

Reviews
Goodreads · 2025-09-02
sobering 3.75

Cowen’s analysis of labor market polarization and man-machine collaboration offers a compelling but bleak outlook for unskilled workers in an increasingly automated economy.

The reviewer appreciates Cowen’s exploration of how automation and computational power reshape employment, noting that the collaboration between humans and machines often outperforms machines alone. They find the use of man+machine chess as a metaphor insightful for understanding future work dynamics, although it is borrowed from other thinkers. However, the reviewer is struck by the grim prospects Cowen paints for unskilled young men, who are increasingly marginalized and relegated to service roles supporting the wealthy elite. They express skepticism about the sustainability and meaningfulness of these service roles, describing them as an empty existence despite Cowen’s premium on conscientiousness.

Quick quotes

    "Man + machine teams can usually outperform pure machine teams."

    "Fully ¾ of 17-24 year old men in the US are unfit for military service."

    "There will be a 'premium on conscientiousness' and dutifully fulfilling the desires of the wealthy."

SoBrief · 2025-09-02
thought-provoking 4.00

The book emphasizes the growing importance of working alongside intelligent machines and the increasing polarization of the job market, urging education reform to prepare workers for new demands.

This summary stresses that Cowen’s core argument is about the rise of intelligent machines transforming work and wages, creating a divide between high earners who complement technology and those with replaceable skills who struggle. It also highlights Cowen’s call for education systems to adapt by fostering critical thinking and adaptability to meet the new economic realities. The review explains how Cowen portrays a future where technological displacement forces workers to acquire new skills to survive in a polarized labor market. It draws particular attention to the essential role of continual retraining and the widening inequality gap as technology reshapes employment landscapes.

Quick quotes

    "Average is over."

    "The key questions will be: Are you good at working with intelligent machines or not?"

    "Lacking the right training means being shut out of opportunities like never before."

Brookings Institution · Elisabeth Jacobs · 2013-09-03
insightful 4.25

The book forecasts a future divided by technology-driven meritocracy where success depends on complementing intelligent machines, creating stark social and economic divides.

Elisabeth Jacobs highlights Tyler Cowen’s vision of a future America split into two sharply contrasting classes: those who succeed by effectively working with advanced technology and those left behind. She points out how Cowen’s idea of a 'hyper-meritocracy' will reward self-motivation and skill with intelligent machines but also leads to intense economic and social polarization, with winners and losers living separate lives and having limited upward mobility. Jacobs also notes Cowen’s justification of income inequality as merit-based and self-reinforcing, shaping public values around ambition and self-motivation, and resulting in a constrained welfare state. However, she critiques Cowen for underestimating the role of social capital and networks, which will likely amplify divisions beyond mere economic factors.

Quick quotes

    This book is far from all good news.

    America will become a 'hyper-meritocracy,' where many careers become more demanding as employers will be able to measure economic value with 'a sometimes oppressive precision.'

    Income inequality is justified by meritocracy, and this framework is self-reinforcing.

Appears in Lists