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If you wanted a glib way to sum up how the economy works today, you could say we've gone from hardware to software, from selling tangible things such as railroads, cars, and airplanes to selling less tangible ones such as information services. In fact, services grew from 31 percent of U.S. economic output in 1950 to 55 percent in 1998. In Future Wealth, Stan Davis and Christopher Meyer explain why they think we're headed toward a new stage of economic development in which "human and intellectual capital the most highly valued resource."

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Remember how David Bowie sold Bowie Bonds a few years back, essentially leasing out his future earnings from royalties and concert revenues so he could get $55 million in cash up front? That's just the beginning, say the authors. Today thousands of people we've never heard of accept signing bonuses to go to work for companies, and soon many exceptionally talented individuals will imitate Bowie's move--sell stock in their future earnings. Regardless of whether we're fortunate enough to offer ourselves to the financial markets in the form of stocks or bonds, or even to command signing bonuses, each of us has unprecedented potential to become wealthy, the authors posit. More and more, our salaries will become chump change compared to the money we make from investments. Add to that the supposition that we carry around untold capital in our brains, and Future Wealth shows a future that we'll definitely want to be a part of. --Lou Schuler

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Meyer directs Ernst and Young's left for Business Innovation. Davis is the coauthor of 2020 Vision (1991) and has served as senior research fellow at the left for the last four years. Two years ago, the two collaborated to produce the best-seller Blur: The Speed of Change in a Connected Economy, in which they argued that the growing speed of business transactions, increasing connectivity, and the intangible qualities of improved service are all making less clear any distinction between products and services, customers and sellers, and capital and people. Now they use these same propositions to show how the nature of wealth is changing in the new economy. The transformation of capital from fixed assets to knowledge means that control of wealth is shifting from the institution to the individual. They suggest that human capital, skills, and talent will be traded in the marketplace, and they detail the implications for individuals, companies, and society. Davis and Meyer then conclude by listing "twenty ways toward future wealth." David Rouse

Product Details

* Audio CD

* Publisher: Highbridge Audio; Abridged edition (September 4, 2000)

* ISBN-10: 1565114167

* ASIN: B001QCX8RS

Customer Reviews

Future Wealth is the second book in a trilogy that began with Blur, by Stan Davis and Chris Meyer. The book builds a full argument on a small theme in Blur concerning the issue of Bowie Bonds by the rock composer and performer David Bowie. Seldom will you find a book with such a valuable insight into the likely future of capitalism.

Unlike most business books which just describe something that has been going on for some time, Future Wealth clearly goes beyond today into tomorrow. For those who are unfamiliar with scenario-based thinking, this book will seem strange. Experience shows that such thinking is extremely valuable for helping each of us prepare for things that may well happen.

Although some see nothing new in this book beyond Blur, that is clearly not the case. Blur ends with the Bowie Bonds example and Future Wealth begins there, but that is not the end.

The biggest idea in Future Wealth is that individuals need not have the volatility exposure to risk that makes each of us take a conservative financial course. The solution to volatility is to pool risk with a statistically significant number of others. This is the solution that makes insurance and mutual funds work better. David and Meyer have the insight to see that combining all aspects of our future, including our net worth, into such pools can allow us to take greater risk that will permit the potential for much greater reward. As a result, risk is our friend if we handle it properly.

They also see the systems potential of getting the present value of our economic potential available to us. We can use the funds to both expand our future income and net worth, while diversifying our risk. That is a fundamental insight that we should each pay attention to. Instead of being limited to the resources at hand, we can have virtually unlimited potential by investing in our futures using all of the potential resources that might be available to us. A public company is like a government, in that it can issue more stock to create more resources. Now, Davis and Meyer extend that perspective to the individual.

Turning around the current company-centered economic culture, they argue that companies should invest in their employees by helping them go public and taking a position alongside of them.

One of the great strengths of this book is that it suggests a fundamental new paradigm for growth and wealth. There is a set of public policy suggestions that emphasize greater social safety nets that permit each person to take on more risk that can expand wealth for the individual, the company and the society. They point out that the connected economy favors the potential for each of us to so much more.

In the future, thoughtful readers will remember this book as The Wealth of Nations for individuals. Good luck with developing your Future Wealth!

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I loved their last book BLUR because it was chock full of decisive, useful insights to leverage the economic change we face. They wrote of Bowie Bonds and other interesting concepts that are just warmed-over in Future Wealth. Future Wealth would make a great essay, but there's not enough new substance for a book. Still, I'll eagerly await their next book, for I know what this duo is capable of.

Future Wealth is populist, upbeat and a typical product of the latter stages of a booming stock market. It succeeds Blur by the same authors. The good times are going to last for ever, risk should be seen as opportunity, the way to the future is to find ways of borrowing the cash value of your skills and to commit it to the dance. Everyone's a winner, there are no losers (or they don't rate a mention). The book is interesting primarily as an example of shrewd marketing of reassurance into a boom economy.

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