Copies of my soon-to-be-released new book The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class arrived today (Penguin, Sept. 13, 2016) and are available for preordered here.
In The Upside of Inequality, I argue that if we ignore the true causes of growing income inequality—an abundance of unskilled labor in an economy constrained by properly trained talent and its willingness to take risk—and blame high wage-earners, it will lead to policies that slow (middle- and working-class wage) growth. One implication is that spreading constrained resources over more low-skilled workers expands employment at the expense of slower lesser-skilled productivity and wage growth relative to the rest of the economy. I suspect this is a key driver behind Trump’s support among Reagan Democrats. Given these constraints, I lay out a blueprint for raising middle and working class wages in a world with a near-unlimited supply of lesser-skilled labor.
Greg Mankiw said my last book—the Top 10 New York Times Bestseller Unintended Consequences—was “far smarter and more thought-provoking than most economics written for the general public.” I’ve worked hard to achieve the same standard with this book. Larry Summers, a tough critic on the left, blurbed: I disagree but respect the argument, calling it “a very valuable contribution” that will “sharpen your thinking on critical economic issues.” Glenn Hubbard, David Autor, George Borjas, Larry Lindsey, and other prominent economists also blurbed it.
You can read more of the early reviews here.
