The Human Advantage

The Future of American Work in an Age of Smart Machines

By: Jay W. Richards

Narrated by: Marc Cashman

Best-selling author and economist Jay W. Richards makes the definitive case for how the free market and individual responsibility can save the American Dream in an age of automation and mass disruption.

For two and a half centuries, America has been held together by the belief that if you work hard and conduct yourself responsibly in this country, you will be able to prosper and leave a better life for your children. But over the past decade, that idea has come into crisis. A recession, the mass outsourcing of stable jobs, and a coming wave of automation that will replace millions of blue- and white-collar jobs alike have left many people worried that the game is rigged and that our best days are behind us.

In this story-driven manifesto on the future of American work, Jay Richards argues that such thinking is counterproductive - making us more fragile, more dependent, and less equipped to succeed in a rapidly changing economy. If we're going to survive, we need a new model for how ordinary people can thrive in this age of mass disruption. Richards pulls back the curtain on what's really happening in our economy, dispatching myths about capitalism, greed, and upward mobility. And he tells the stories of how real individuals have begun to rebuild a culture of virtue, capitalizing on the skills that are most uniquely human: creativity, resilience, and empathy for the needs of others

Destined to take its place alongside classics like Economics in One Lesson, The Human Advantage is the essential book for understanding the future of American work and how each of us can make this era of staggering change work on our behalf.

©2018 Jay W. Richards (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"The blistering pace of technological change has left many Americans uncertain about their place in the 21st-century economy. But as Jay Richards wisely reminds us, no machine will ever be able to replicate what makes us truly human: Our creativity, and our virtue. The Human Advantage masterfully demonstrates that we need not fear the future, and that a life of happiness still awaits those with the courage to pursue it." (Arthur C. Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute)

"Boldly upends what Richards calls 'the greatest delusion of our age...the paradoxical penchant to deny our own agency while attributing agency to the machines we create.' Richards commands all the wisdom of Michael Novak and transcends it with a Renaissance range of mastery of the sciences and an infectious genius for storytelling." (George Gilder, best-selling author of Wealth and Poverty)

"Jay Richards brings an agile pen and a synthetical mind to the task of outlining and defending the basis of human flourishing in this new age of Smart Machines. In The Human Advantage, Richards gives us a concise history of revolutions in human work, from prehistory to the present, and how they have changed our world and our lives. He addresses the latest economic and moral challenges and opportunities presented to us by the rise of thinking machines. The way forward he charts is firmly grounded in the unique dignity, strength, and destiny that make us truly human." (Rev. Robert Sirico, president of the Acton Institute)

unlistenable from chapter 10

I liked it until it became choppy starting with chapter 10. Terrible quality, absolutely unlistenable.

So much potential, too much ideology

Clearly the author is knowledgeable about a great many subjects. Sadly, the author's intepretation of the facts cited are steeped deeply in orthodox capitalist ideology. The resulting conclusion devolves into a short hand diatribe of platitudes regarding virtue with complete detachment from the reality of modern life.