Summary Of Tyler Cowen's 'The Complacent Class'

Tyler Cowen, author of The Complacent Class, talks about how the current population is becoming more and more set into their routines, lifestyle, and day to day activities than previous generations. Cowen discusses how now more than ever there has been a stagnation to new development in almost every industry. He goes to further explain that Americans are now invested in not making these changes we have seen in the past to move towards progress and advancements, and they have become more interested in what he describes as “matching culture”, where everything and everyone someone interacts with is almost predetermined for them. Cowen is trying to show the reader that this halt to advancement and the push to keep things as they are will eventually …show more content…
My generation, the Millennials, tries to combat discrimination and yet we seem to be building the barriers between each other ever higher. Although we march for women’s rights, you typically won’t find a 20 something liberal in a friend group with a young conservative. Black Lives Matter is a major movement in my peer group, but you won’t see someone my age working on a master’s degree hanging out with someone who decided to drop out of high school. Arnold Kling also takes time to examine this chapter specifically, also noting it contained a strong message about America becoming “highly segregated by income, educational attainment, and race” (Kling). He recalls in the 1960’s when “ the newly-created Department of Housing and Urban Development touted ‘urban renewal,’ cynics charged that ‘urban renewal equals black removal,’” which unfortunately became true (Kling). He also talks about how Cowen addresses several possible causes of the stagnation, but never pin points the cause as having a single source