Human Capitalism: How Economic Growth Has Made Us Smarter--And More Unequal

Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 One: The Rise of Complexity 6 Two: The Abstract Art of Modern Living 12 Three: Capitalism with a Human Face 23 Four: Class and Consciousness 31 Five: Inequality as a Culture Gap 41 Six: From Convergence to Polarization 55 Seven: Reforming Human Capitalism 71 Eight: What Lies Ahead 98 Notes 117 Index 131

Brink Lindsey is a senior scholar at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and former vice president for research at the Cato Institute. He is the author of The Age of Abundance: How Prosperity Transformed America's Politics and Culture (Collins) and Against the Dead Hand: The Uncertain Struggle for Global Capitalism (Wiley).

Mr. Lindsey, formerly with the Cato Institute, is one of the most engaging libertarian writers. Here he seeks to address a much-talked about problem: While many Americans are becoming wealthier by joining the ranks of 'managers, professionals and entrepreneurs,' and the working class is not shrinking, those who remain in the dwindling middle find it harder to break into the so-called knowledge economy... [I]t takes a special kind of talent to write about public policies like these in a way that doesn't put you to sleep, and he has that talent. -- Barton Swaim Wall Street Journal All of Brink's specific proposals are reasonable... I really like the book ... -- Arnold Kling Econlog America's economic future isn't really about the top tax rate or entitlement spending. Rather, it is about our skills, our character, and our ability to form relationships that can help us navigate a more complex and chaotic world. That is the central insight of Brink Lindsey's Human Capitalism, which in a few short pages upends conventional understandings of how culture and economics intertwine--and what we should do about it. han Salam, co-author of "Grand New Party Fascinating... Lindsey suggests the problem of inequality is even more intractable than the pessimists had thought. He argues that the leitmotif of the post-industrial economy is growing complexity: there is more knowledge to acquire, more institutions to deal with and more choices to make. Success increasingly depends on your ability to master complexity, which in turn depends on your ability to master abstraction. -- Adrian Wooldridge Sunday Times It's short and cheap and very interesting, and I recommend it... I find Mr. Lindsey's emphasis on complexity and networks very appealing. Economist.com's Free Exchange blog Think about the mind-boggling number of e-mails, phone calls, and text messages that Americans send each other every day, and you'll realize that our lives have become more complex and interconnected than ever