Tyler Cowen, a professor of economics at George Mason University, has an upcoming book called The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream that argues against today’s typical American desire for extreme comfort and resistance to change:

Americans today have broken from this tradition [of restlessness]―we’re working harder than ever to avoid change. We’re moving residences less, marrying people more like ourselves and choosing our music and our mates based on algorithms that wall us off from anything that might be too new or too different.

[…] this cannot go on forever. We are postponing change, due to our near-sightedness and extreme desire for comfort, but ultimately this will make change, when it comes, harder. The forces unleashed by the Great Stagnation will eventually lead to a major fiscal and budgetary crisis: impossibly expensive rentals for our most attractive cities, worsening of residential segregation, and a decline in our work ethic. The only way to avoid this difficult future is for Americans to force themselves out of their comfortable slumber―to embrace their restless tradition again.

The book is set to be released on February 28th, 2017, and the hardcover can now be pre-ordered on Amazon for $20. The Kindle edition is $15, as well as the iBook version.

In a blog post announcing the book, Cowen adds that he’s also releasing a special “add-on” book called Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals, which he’s been revising for over 15 years:

I also am making a special offer for those who pre-order [The Complacent Class]. Just send me an email to tcowen@gmu.edu (or my gmail), and tell me you have pre-ordered The Complacent Class, and I’ll send you a free copy of another work by me — about 45,000 words — on the foundations of a free society.

[…]

You will receive links to an on-line version with images, a pdf with images, and a plain vanilla pdf for Kindle.

Not a bad deal.