Over the next 25 years global economic growth
will come overwhelmingly from previously poor countries like China,
India, and Brazil. In rich countries this "rise of the rest" scenario
strikes fear into the many observers who see as its primary consequence a
dangerous combination of unrestrained consumerism, unsustainable
resource depletion, and an undoing of U.S. economic dominance.
In The Coming Prosperity,
Philip Auerswald acknowledges the gravity of these issues but argues
that the inclusion of the majority of the world's population in the
global economy is, first and foremost, a source of unprecedented
opportunity. Auerswald asserts that entrepreneurship is the key to
making the most of the epochal transition in the global economy that
will take place in the next quarter century. Inventors, innovators, and
the creators of new ventures are introducing new technologies and
expanding the range of global knowledge networks at a remarkable pace.
The ensuing opportunities are abundant--not only for residents of
previously poor countries, but also for people in the United States and
other advanced, industrialized nations. The book's rigorous analysis of
economic and historical trends is enlivened by the stories of
entrepreneurs making an outsize difference: people like Karim Khoja, who
led the creation of the first mobile phone company in Afghanistan;
Leila Janah, who is bringing "outsourced" computer work to refugee
camps; and Victoria Hale, whose non-profit pharmaceutical company turned
an orphan drug into a cure for kala-azar (black fever), one of South
Asia's most deadly diseases.
Engagingly written and bracingly realistic about the positive prospects of our historical moment, The Coming Prosperity sees beyond the doomsday scenarios to find a multitude of new opportunities in the expanding global economy.
