The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class

by Edward Conard Narrated by Rick Adamson

Overview

From the New York Times-bestselling author of Unintended Consequences comes another bold and contrarian book by the man who famously defended capitalism and the one percent at the height of the Occupy movement.
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Conventional wisdom says income inequality is rising and harmful to nearly everyone, and the rich are to blame. But as Ed Conard shows, anyone who can produce a product valued by the entire economy will find his or her income growing faster than those who are limited by the number of customers they can serve, such as schoolteachers, plumbers, doctors, and lawyers.
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Consider Taylor Swift, the current queen of pop, who made $64 million in 2014. She earns more because her audience is huge, not because she takes anything away from the tens of millions of fans who happily pay for all those concert tickets, iTunes downloads, and souvenir t-shirts. Her ability to generate value can scale with the economy. The same is true for others who improve the lives of millions, like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook. The growing success of innovators doesn't hurt the rest of the workforce. In fact, the opposite is true--their success increases the demand for our middle and working class labor.
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Challenging the arguments of liberal economists like Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz, Conard reveals the truth about the income inequality panic. And by drawing on a historical study of the ebbs and flows of our economy, he proposes ways to grow the economy faster, which will benefit everyone on the income spectrum.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Ed Conard challenges misconceptions that distort our economic debates. He debunks the myth that inequality is a conspiracy perpetuated by robber barons and sheds light on the complex economic phenomena that shape America’s success. Readers of all political persuasions will benefit from this highly-informative book.”

—Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute

“This provocative new book by Ed Conard is a must-read for serious students of economic policy. Conard’s core thesis—that advancement in living standards is constrained by risk capital and properly trained talent—suggests an inequality borne of returns from innovation. His solutions are sensible and all the more compelling in the context of this paean to risk-taking.”

—Glenn Hubbard, dean of Columbia Business School and former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers
 
“Conard makes a fresh argument for the productive value of inequality, which is that scarce entrepreneurial effort and risk-tolerant capital are the resources that are both most central to economic growth and most sensitive to the potential distortions imposed by taxation and regulation. Whether or not one accepts this argument, it’s an argument well worth having.”

—David Autor, professor of economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 
“I profoundly disagree with much of what is in Conard’s book but respect the clarity with which he makes his case.  Agree or disagree, this book can sharpen your thinking on critical economic issues, making it a very valuable contribution.”

—Larry Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury and Director of the National Economic Council, President Emeritus, Harvard University
 
“Ed Conard puts forward a comprehensive explanation of the modern economy. Critics may dismiss it as a defense of the 1 percent, but it’s much, much more than that. I rarely see economic analysis as insightful as this.”

—Julian Robertson, founder of Tiger Management
 
“Page after page, Ed Conard challenges conventional wisdom about the causes of growing inequality, the constraints to growth, and the feasibility of commonly proposed solutions to advance a thought-provoking blueprint for growing middle- and working-class incomes in a world with an abundance of workers. Whether you agree or not, this is serious thinking for serious thinkers.”

—Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts

Kirkus Reviews

2016-07-19
Tax the rich? Even out the playing field? Bad idea, writes a famously contrarian financier.It stands to reason that someone affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute would be inclined to mount a stout defense of the 1 percent, and Conard (Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong, 2012) does not disappoint. Add to this his one-time role at Bain Capital, which he co-founded with Mitt Romney, and the package would seem to be complete. However, the author’s argument, calmly presented, has merits: it is true that, in general, the rich pay more taxes than they consume in government services and that a diverse knowledge economy offers more opportunities for wealth than a low-skilled one—and almost by definition produces inequalities. From these premises, Conard’s policy recommendations do not necessarily follow, and some of them are politically toxic, such as the thought that giving the middle class a tax break is ill-advised. “Successful risk-taking that produces innovation and gradually builds institutional capabilities accelerates growth,” he writes. “A middle-class tax cut will have no such effect.” Some of the author’s suggestions, if impractical, are intriguing—e.g., why not have the rich shoulder the burden of defense spending, since they’re the ones who have the most to defend? The weakest sections of the book are the most formulaic, such as the tired mantra that students should not be rewarded for studying English but should instead be induced to study something “useful,” never mind that many iconic business leaders (Steve Jobs, Bill Gates) have studies in philosophy and the humanities in their quivers. Conard also comes up short on specifics for the education reform that he argues is needed to produce a robust economy, noting weakly instead that “we should be running a multitude of experiments to find solutions that work.” Unlikely to sway those for whom the idea of economic inequality is anathema, but a set of arguments worth considering.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169324426
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	09/13/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Upside of Inequality"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Edward Conard.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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