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Free
Agent Nation
By Daniel
Pink
Warner Books, 2001 - 356 pages
This book does an excellent job in showing how the U.S.
employment market is truly changing in modern times. Instead
of being captives of the organizational mode, income-earners
are now free agents, including some 30 million freelancers,
temps, and microbusiness owners. The lifestyles and
philosophies of this growing group will impact the labor pool,
retirement, education, real estate, and politics.
While Daniel Pink terms the phrase "Free Agent
Nation" to describe the current economy he basically hits
on the fact that the U.S. economy is a more knowledge-based,
service-oriented economy without using all the economic
jargon. While Pink doesn't focus on the evolution of the U.S.
economy (agricultural to industrial to service &
technology) he focuses heavily on "big picture"
issues that will arise from such an economy. While I wish he
explained to everyone the increase in our societies wealth and
standard of living from such an evolution he doesn't. But it
helps the flow and makes it a lot easier and fun to read, that
is for sure!
Pink does an excellent job in assessing why our economy is
evolving. Free Agency is a post-industrial phenomenon that
thrives in areas where innovation and flexibility are the only
means of survival. Pink concludes that our current evolution
is a function partially of what William Whyte wrote in
"The Organization Man" in 1956. Today's worker, if
properly educated and full networked has the ability to
specialize and participate in the U.S. economy in a radically
different way than in the past.
If you are considering working for yourself, especially if
you are a college-educated individual who considers the
corporate route the only way to go, I would highly encourage
you to read this book. Other books of interest about "big
picture" workplace issues are Peter Drucker's Management
Challenges for the 21st Century and As
the Future Catches You by Juan Enriquez, which
does an excellent job (in a very brief chapter or two of the
book) to show why rich nations are pulling further and further
ahead of other countries and what it means in the long-term to
the training of a countries workforce.
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About the
Author:
DANIEL
H. PINK is a contributing editor at Fast Company
magazine. His articles on technology, economic
transformation, and the future have appeared in
the New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic,
Salon, among others. A former White House
speechwriter, Pink lives in Washington, DC with
his wife and their two daughters.
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