Opting Out: Losing the Potential of America’s Young Black Elite

an example close to home for many CS readers: Auerswald notes that the employment opportunities available to recent college graduates do not match their degrees, and that it is unfortunate that they are pushed down old paths rather than encouraged to ‘‘map out new pathways that correspond to current realities’’ (p. 186). No specific suggestion is offered as to what those new pathways might be, and there is no acknowledgment of the barriers to pursuing them, such as student loans and access to health insurance after marriage or age 26. Thinking more broadly, consider that jumps in economic growth tend to come with the creation of new platforms for growth: the spinning jenny, the internet. Facebook and iPhone apps are one thing, but they are not platforms for whole new industries. The kind of research needed to make the next big jumps is expensive, and few people in the world currently have access to those means. Perhaps I’m being too skeptical. Perhaps lots of things, like improvements in disease prevention and more widely-available education, will roll into the kind of critical mass supposed by Auerswald. Standing in the way, though, are assumptions glossed over in this volume: that the status quo can be toppled by the democratization of productive capability, and that productive entrepreneurship will outweigh the benefits of destructive entrepreneurship. Auerswald needs the world to think about the long-term. Maybe we can do that. Hopefully Auerswald is right, and the kind of prosperity than can lift all boats, not just a few, but a lot, is just around the corner. In the meantime, if you are interested in entrepreneurship, technology, or economic development, read this book. It will drive you nuts, for better or worse. Opting Out: Losing the Potential of America’s Young Black Elite, by Maya A. Beasley. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2011. 225pp. $25.00 paper. ISBN: 9780226040141.