American democratic capitalism is in danger. How can we save it?For its first two hundred years
the American economy exhibited truly impressive performance. The combination of democratically
elected governments and a capitalist system worked with ever-increasing levels of efficiency
spurred by division of labor international trade and scientific management of companies. By
the nation's bicentennial celebration in 1976 the American economy was the envy of the
world.But since then outcomes have changed dramatically. Growth in the economic prosperity of
the average American family has slowed to a crawl while the wealth of the richest Americans
has skyrocketed. This imbalance threatens the American democratic capitalist system and our way
of life.In this bracing yet constructive book world-renowned business thinker Roger Martin
starkly outlines the fundamental problem: We have treated the economy as a machine pursuing
ever-greater efficiency as aninherent good. But efficiency has become too much of a good thing.
Our obsession with it has inadvertently shifted the shape of our economy from a large middle
class and smaller numbers of rich and poor (think of a bell-shaped curve) to a greater share of
benefits accruing to a thin tail of already-rich Americans (a Pareto distribution).With lucid
analysis and engaging anecdotes Martin argues that we must stop treating the economy as a
perfectible machine and shift toward viewing it as a complex adaptive system in which we seek a
fundamental balance of efficiency with resilience. To achieve this we need to keep in mind the
whole while working on the component parts pursue improvement not perfection and
relentlessly tweak instead of attempting to find permanent solutions.Filled with keen economic
insight and advice for citizens executives policy makers and educators When More Is Not
Better is the must-read guide for saving democratic capitalism.
