The Wealth of Humans

September 15, 2016

There's much in today's world that Scottish philosopher and political economist Adam Smith didn't have to contend with when writing The Wealth of Nations in 1776, including the digital economy, negative interest rates, and the "rise of the robots." In this update of Smith's work for the 21st century, Economist columnist Avent takes on these and other modern-day economic woes, focusing on the human side of the equation. He begins by providing background on global issues such as wage stagnation, labor oversupply, and the sharp increase in income inequality, and then presents intelligent discussion about possible remedies. There's cogent, thoughtful, and nonpartisan coverage of the cases for more open borders, income redistribution, a guaranteed basic income, and increasing infrastructure spending, among other ideas. Alas, there are no easy answers, and Avent is scrupulous in supplying both pros and cons. Scholarly without being overly academic, this work offers an excellent high-level summation of the difficulties of the current U.S. and international labor economies, with a very slight whiff of hopefulness at the end. VERDICT A provocative, accessible, nonpolemical, and nonpolitical take on difficult topics. Recommended for academic libraries. [See Prepub Alert, 10/19/15.]--Susan Hurst, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH

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