Interviews and discussions

Technology writer and critic Andrew Keen interviewed Cowen for his Keen On series for TechCrunch in September 2013.^[3]

Cowen appeared on a Financial Times podcast. Diane Coyle also participated, discussing her own book, and the authors talked about each other's publications as well. The host was Cardiff Garcia.^[4]

Cowen appeared on National Public Radio in September 2013 to discuss the book.^[5]

Cowen discussed the themes of the book in a video interview by Nia-Malika Henderson for the On Background series of The Washington Post''.^[6]

99u published some advice from Cowen for its readers that was based on insights in the book.^[7]

Reviews

The book was reviewed favorably by Philip Delves Broughton in The Wall Street Journal.^[2] Broughton noted that Cowen had not investigated high finance in his book and could have done so, but was otherwise favorably impressed by Cowen's themes.

Matthew Yglesias gave the book a mixed but largely positive review on his Slate blog, Moneybox.^[8] He writes that he expects the book "will set the intellectual agenda in much the way that its predecessor [The Great Stagnation] did" but that its "somewhat cryptic tone" requires "explication." He notes that Average Is Over apparently contradicts Cowen's previous book, The Great Stagnation – whereas that book argued (to quote Yglesias) "that the median household in rich countries had suffered stagnant living standards thanks to a slowdown in technological progress," Average Is Over argues that "the median household in rich countries will suffer stagnant living standards thanks to a speedup in technological progress." Yglesias proposes that the contradiction is resolved because "read in conjunction it's clear that in neither period was the stagnation actually caused by the pace of technological change ... scratch the surface and you'll see that Cowen actually thinks there's a policy reform agenda that, if implemented in a timely fashion, would channel much more of the gains of future automation and computerization to the median household." Yglesias then says that the policy reforms favored by Cowen constitute "in general a very solid forward-thinking 21st century egalitarian agenda." But he explains why Cowen "doubts the political system will deliver any of these solutions," and also notes that Cowen argues that "these somewhat bleak trends he forecasts aren't really all that bad if you look at them in the right light." He concludes by explaining why he disagrees with Cowen on both of these points.

Robert Heritt reviewed the book for The Daily Beast, calling it a "lively and worryingly prophetic read."^[9]

The book also received a (gated) review from Brenda Jubin on Seeking Alpha. Jubin wrote: "The future Cowen paints is pretty bleak for the majority of Americans." She concluded by writing: "This is not a future I want to see. We can only hope that, as often happens, trends are disrupted."^[10]

The Economist gave the book a mixed review, observing that Cowen's predictions about the use of technology for surveillance, rising unemployment, and demands for lower taxes were in line with current trends, but arguing that Cowen was too sanguine about the potential for inter-generational conflict or the appeal of demagogues in a democracy where the majority will become poorer.^[11]

Other reviewers of the book included Teresa Hartnett for Publishers Weekly (a negative review),^[12] Michael Barone for the Washington Examiner,^[13] and others.^[14]