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14 December 2006

‘Revolutionary wealth’

By Jim Pinto

Alvin Toffler’s ground-breaking Future Shock, first published in 1970, warned how accelerating technology would change society. It turns out society coped fairly well in spite of the shock, though that doesn’t minimize Toffler’s remarkable prescience.

Then came The Third Wave in 1984, which described how humanity had fared through first the Agricultural and then the Industrial revolution, and was now in the midst of the Technological revolution. The Internet was not quite there yet, but the book was a benchmark of progress and harbinger of the new century.

In 1990, Toffler came out with Power Shift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Power at the Edge of the 21st Century, another sweeping view a decade before the new century emerged with its cataclysmic economic and societal shifts. The co-author was Toffler’s wife Heidi, who it turns out was a strong contributor for all the previous books.

Recently, I caught an interesting interview on C-SPAN between the controversial Newt Gingrich and his good friend Alvin Toffler. The subject was the Tofflers’ new book, Revolutionary Wealth: How it will be created and how it will change our lives. While they were still talking, I made my one-click purchase on Amazon.com.

This latest book is not about how you or I can become wealthy. It’s a futuristic forecast that surveys the broad advances of technology, globalization, the rise of China, the decay of Europe, and the rise of new economic groups. The Tofflers think through the complexities with analytical depth that remains understandable. A primary theme is “prosumerism,” whereby the division between the producers and consumer of goods and services blurs.

It’s worth the read. Go review it on Amazon or at your local bookstore.

• Amazon link – Tofflers’ Revolutionary Wealth:
  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375401741/jimpintocom/104-5027876-2659169
• Book Review: Revolutionary Wealth by Alvin and Heidi Toffler:
  http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/05/03/150942.php

Behind the byline

Jim Pinto is an industry analyst and founder of Action Instruments. You can e-mail him at jim@jimpinto.com or view his writings at www.JimPinto.com. Read the Table of Contents of his new book, Pinto’s Points, at www.jimpinto.com/writings/points.html.