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A review by davidr
The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies by Andrew McAfee, Erik Brynjolfsson
4.0
The first part of this book reviews the incredible boom in technologies that are driving much of our economy. After that, the remainder of the book is about "bounty and spread". Bounty is the increased level of prosperity that some--but not all--of the population enjoys, as productivity increases. Spread is the growth of inequality, as much of the increased prosperity goes to the top economic levels, and little gets distributed to the lower economic levels. Thus, there ia a growing "spread" of income levels, what we normally would call "inequality".
The authors show that real, inflation-adjusted wages have grown since 1963 for people who have graduated from college or graduate school. High school graduates have not had real wage increases, and high school dropouts have had wage decreases. The authors note that some increases in "prosperity" cannot be measured; who in 1963 had a cell phone, a tablet computer, or cable TV? These consumer items were not available at any prices, and Moore's law has allowed these electronic inventions advance spectacularly in power in recent decades. However, these consumer items are not fully indicative of prosperity, since real estate, food, and transportation have not kept up with Moore's law. These are necessities, not luxuries, and thus the overall prosperity of most people has not increased with time.
The authors conclude with a set of policies that would help increase the prosperity of even the lower-level economic class; overhaul the education system, encourage entrepreneurship, encourage better match-ups between skills and jobs, increase support for science, upgrade infrastructure, reform patent law and reform taxes.
This is a well-written, basic-level book dealing with economics. It's interesting, but the recommendations a bit bland. There is little discussion about how to surmount the political hurdles. There is not much here that isn't also discussed elsewhere.
The authors show that real, inflation-adjusted wages have grown since 1963 for people who have graduated from college or graduate school. High school graduates have not had real wage increases, and high school dropouts have had wage decreases. The authors note that some increases in "prosperity" cannot be measured; who in 1963 had a cell phone, a tablet computer, or cable TV? These consumer items were not available at any prices, and Moore's law has allowed these electronic inventions advance spectacularly in power in recent decades. However, these consumer items are not fully indicative of prosperity, since real estate, food, and transportation have not kept up with Moore's law. These are necessities, not luxuries, and thus the overall prosperity of most people has not increased with time.
The authors conclude with a set of policies that would help increase the prosperity of even the lower-level economic class; overhaul the education system, encourage entrepreneurship, encourage better match-ups between skills and jobs, increase support for science, upgrade infrastructure, reform patent law and reform taxes.
This is a well-written, basic-level book dealing with economics. It's interesting, but the recommendations a bit bland. There is little discussion about how to surmount the political hurdles. There is not much here that isn't also discussed elsewhere.