In particular, the authors observe that after the Great Recession of 2007–2008, many measures of economic health (such as GDP, corporate profits, and investment in equipment and software) rebounded quickly, while unemployment lagged behind, which they attribute to technology eliminating the need for many forms of human labor.

The authors write that businesses are increasingly substituting machines for people, and that rate at which digital technologies are advancing is exponentially higher than that of the organizations, institutions, and individuals within our economy.

[1][2][3][4][5] Brynjolfsson and McAfee write that advanced digital technologies are making people more innovative, productive and richer, both in the short- and long-term, but potentially at the cost of increasing wealth inequality in society.

In the authors' view, one of the main in-egalitarian consequences of digital technological developments is its potentially negative impact on some types of employment, such as routine information processing work.

"[1][2][3][4][5] Given the advancement of technology, the authors have several recommendations for policymakers in the United States to increase economic prosperity, including:[6] Like Jeremy Rifkin's book The End of Work, The Race against the Machine has been criticized for lacking credible evidence in making predictions about future job loss.