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Economist argues economy hurting because of Americans’ laziness

Economist Tyler Cowen argues Americans have become lazy, and it’s directly causing the U.S. to stagnate economically and politically.

Cowen tells CNN Money Americans don't start businesses or move to new neighborhoods as often as the 1960s and 1970s.

According to the interview, Cowen’s book argues that all of the upheaval of the 1960s and 70s caused people to strive for safety and the status quo in the decades after that.  His new book is called “The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream.”

“Just look at how people bring up children today.  Often they won’t even let children go outside,” Cowen says to CNN.

Cowen, a professor of economics at George Mason University, says technology innovation encourages “leisure and staying at home.”

The article uses this graphic to show how Americans are creating fewer businesses than they once did:

Cowen warns that history shows it usually requires a “major trauma” such as a war or huge natural disaster for things to turn around.

He also says the U.S. has an “amazing ability to regenerate itself, so it’s possible it won’t take something so extreme to reawaken America’s risk-taking mojo.”

Cowen also tells peple to take more risk in their own lives, whether it’s career or person.

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