Things have never been better - and tomorrow they'll be better still. So argues Richard B. McKenzie in this provocative new book, The Paradox of Progress. Despite all the press stories of lay-offs and stagnant wages, despite all the talk of economic insecurity, says McKenzie, Americans have never lived so well, or had so many opportunities. The question, he writes, is not why things aren't better, but why does everyone keep complaining.

In The Paradox of Progress, McKenzie demolishes the idea that the nation is in economic decline - and explains why we still feel so insecure. Our perception of decline, he argues, comes from the press, which has long since learned that bad news sells; but he demonstrates how the 1980s - much-maligned by the media - in fact heralded a new age of prosperity and opportunity.

Government needs to get out of the way and accept the shift in "economic tectonics." And the message for workers, McKenzie writes, is clear: "Become more productive. Work harder and smarter. Get more education and skills. Get competitive. Do more than others have been doing or will likely do. Stop complaining."

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Public anxiety is justified, McKenzie adds, but it is misplaced: for if the shift in "economic tectonics" is ultimately a positive development, it has been accompanied by a "moral tectonics" earthquake that has been highly destructive. The real social divide, he writes, is not between haves and have-nots, but between those who play by the rules, and those who refuse to.

Members of the first group will eventually get ahead; those of the latter won't, and will blame everything - and everyone - except themselves.