Not exactly. Little reasonable fault was found with his methods. But a great many dispute his conclusions. Generally for not much more reason than they don't like them.
I recently ran across the book at a garage sale for $1. Why not?
I'd never read the book, but remembered the fire storm over its racism.
Imagine my surprise that race wasn't even the main focus of the book, although the authors were too honest to dodge the racial issue.
The main focus was how we should deal with a society evolving that has less and less economic use for less-intelligent people. IOW, what are we going to do with these people?
As automation continues and accelerates, the lack of demand will move farther and farther to the right on the IQ scale. For instance, it is likely that within less than 10 or 15 years the task of vehicle driving will largely be done by computers. Fine, you might say, but what are all those presently driving going to do to make a living? I've seen people point out the growing market for development of apps. Does anybody seriously believe large numbers of laid-off truck drivers can be retrained to develop apps for a living?
Murray and his co-authors attempted to address this issue, which is at the core of the "inequality" issue behind Dem propaganda and the OWS people. AFAIK, nobody else has. This is the biggest issue of our time, by far, and absolutely nobody is paying any attention to it.
BTW, it has a tie-in with Derb's screed. If black intelligence is indeed so much lower than that of whites, they will become "obsolete" sooner than whites, on average.
What do we do when larger and larger numbers of our people are obsolete?
Let them weed. Let them thin forests. Let them do riparian restoration projects. The land needs it badly. We need the land to be healthy. It's that simple.
There are a large number of jobs that simply require integrity, a strong work ethic and a smile.
Whimsically, I've suggested that taxpayers give a state-of-the-art robot to every graduating high school senior.
Program it, re-engineer it, duplicate it in any way you like, then set it loose in the work force, where it, or a whole army of it's, go to work for you each day, or manage your business.
The math seems basic.
If robotic productivity doubles each decade - probably an underestimate - in 100 years robots will be 500 times more productive than today.
By 2112, it seems likely that a cost competitive robot or machine will be available for almost every blue collar job that exists in the world economy today.
You mentioned robotic vehicles.
I think your time line may be a bit short, but the consequences will be enormous.
I have to believe that car wrecks and injuries will decline dramatically.
That will impact health care jobs, insurance jobs, vehicle repair jobs, even law enforcement jobs.
Coming sooner will be “Cloud Computing.”
The economies of scale will be staggering.
I have to believe that corporate IT jobs will stagnate, or maybe even decline in coming decades.
Further up the food chain there's the IBM “Watson Computer” that beat the two best “Jeopardy” players in the world.
How long can it be before a Physician's Assistant with a computer can do the work of a medical doctor?
How long can it be before a Registered Nurse with a “Da Vinci Surgical System” can do the work of a surgeon?
Economically, long term, a century in the future, I am much more optimistic than you.
I see the possibility that only 20% or so of the world's best minds and best workers will be in the work force.
The other 80% will be drawing a dividend check from billions of machines and robots, much the same way that Alaska residents draw dividend checks from their oil wells.
Short term, the next decade or so, I'm very pessimistic.
There is no calm, painless way to claw our way out of massive government debt, massive unfunded liabilities, and massive money printing.