Перейти к содержанию сайта
Time to Start Thinking
Book

Time to Start Thinking

America in the Age of Descent

Atlantic Monthly Press, 2012 подробнее...

автоматическое преобразование текста в аудио
автоматическое преобразование текста в аудио

Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Eye Opening
  • Background

Recommendation

Journalist Edward Luce conducted a nine-month examination of America’s middle class, education system, innovative ability, basic research capacity and government. He spoke to makers and movers like Bill Gates and to less exalted working people, including an electrician who had to retrain as a nurse. He finds that the middle class is disappearing as jobs flee to the East, leaving low-paying health care and service “opportunities” in their wake. He says the country’s famous can-do attitude has retreated before risk aversion, apathy and political polarization. Schools do not teach needed skills, and Congress stagnates under the thumb of money and lobbyists. Luce tells his tale too well. He reports dire scenarios skillfully and vividly, though the few cures he offers are unconvincing. In some areas, you may long for a few balancing insights or some small ray of sunshine, like a note about progress that is underway. Still, getAbstract recommends Luce’s bleak insights to America’s levelheaded decision makers and doers – who can address the nation’s problems – and to thoughtful observers anywhere.

Take-Aways

  • The United States government and its people must become more pragmatic.
  • America’s climate of innovation and risk taking has disappeared.
  • More than half of GE’s employees – some 300,000 people – work outside the US.

About the Author

Edward Luce, Washington commentator and former South Asia Bureau Chief for London’s Financial Times, was a speechwriter for former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers during the Clinton administration.


Comment on this summary or Начать обсуждение