Men Without Work

If Women Ran The World It's Probably Nothing 41 Comments

Tara Henley interviews political economist Nicholas Eberstadt;

The prosperity of modern America has helped conceal a catastrophe in employment collapse for prime age men. Prime working-age men — not my definition, 25 to 54 — it’s pretty self-evident why they’re called this. They’re not just important for the workforce, where they’re a main component. These are the crucial years for family formation and raising kids as well. For about two decades after the end of the Second World War, American prime male workforce participation was very, very high. Maybe 3 percent of men were not working, or looking for work. Then around the mid-1960s, something happened, and it was a big something. Because there was a retreat from the workforce, a flight from the labour market. That was almost a straight line upwards between the mid–sixties and 2016 when my first edition of Men Without Work came out. It almost looks like a straight line. It almost looks like something out of geology rather than something out of the social sciences.

Since then, this straight line has continued almost exactly in the same direction. That’s very odd. I could have almost drawn the same line back in 2016, and you could have seen it continue to this very day without altering it at all. What this means is that over three times the share of men out of work, and out of the labour force, can be seen today in America as back in the sixties. In practical terms, this means that the work rate for modern American men is at Great Depression levels. We didn’t start measuring employment seriously in the United States until the very tail end of the Great Depression, until the 1940 census. But the work rate this month for American prime age guys is lower than it was in 1940, when the unemployment rate in the country as a whole was 15 percent. And for the 21st century as a whole, for the entire 21st century, you average it out month by month, the work rate for prime age guys is substantially lower than it was in 1940. For the 21st century to date, we have had a 1937 economy for work for men, even though we live in this fantastically wealthy, productive, technologically dynamic world.

[…]

We have this amazing situation in modern America where we therefore get all of this happy talk about how low our unemployment levels are. We’re at near full employment; we’re at full employment. And at the very same time, if you actually take a look at the population numbers, for every unemployed guy — this is in 2022, this is right now — for every unemployed guy, there were over four who are neither working nor looking for work.

Audio of the full interview is here.

41 Replies to “Men Without Work”

  2. Many factors can be attributed to this trend, certainly a changing jobscape over generations is a prime factor.
    Out here in BC, when I got out of high school 40 some years ago, guys would walk into the nearby sawmill, shake mill, pulp mill, go logging, or hit the fish boats and make solid dough. Those jobs are now long gone.
    Today’s jobs are either sales clerk/associate, construction industry, or require 4 years of Post-sec, to become a SJW morphed tech, engineer or teacher. All these are unappealing to many, rightly or wrongly. It’s as if 2 generations later, we still haven’t adjusted to the lost resource sector jobs where no qualifications were required, and decent wages were paid.
    Another motivating factor, from self-experience, is the self-motivation one gets when forming a couple and having kids. This is almost a primal genetic drive to provide for one’s family to strive and succeed.
    Today’s men are in a world where they are surrounded by females that are vegan, environutter, gender curious, and always for the latest thing on social media. If as a young man, you are a critical thinker and don’t follow the crowd, these females are like porcupines. And these females are everywhere in the under 30 demographic. No wonder there’s so many single males and consequently, they have little drive to strive for better. They are only doing what is necessary for themselves, rather than subject themselves to today’s version of wymyn.
    It’s that, or they deal with the opposite, the self-identified princesses, who are beyond entitled in their attitudes. Again, social media encourages and rewards that narcissistic behaviour.

    1. Remember that time here in BC. We do have jobs up north in the oil patch but the eagerness to go out and get some good money seems to have waned.
      I wanted to make a lot of money because working hard at a tough job was manly. Making good money at it was mucho manly. That’s how men competed.
      I wanted a job/career so I could get a wife/family. I intended to support them so I needed to do what was necessary.
      I totally agree that a lot of the best, macho jobs are gone these days. I think a lot of the motivation to go out and bust your ass has gone for young men as well.

      1. The problem is that today’s snowflakes only care about playing X-Box and they don’t know how to work hard and pull themselves up by their bootstraps. They deserve to be unemployed and without a wife, because they’re losers.

        I don’t blame Canadian women who prefer to be with foreign non-white men. These non-white foreign men work harder and are more masculine than our own Canadian white snowflakes.

        I love it when I see a Canadian white woman with a black foreign man, they look wonderfully exquisite together.

        1. I don’t think so. Canuckistanian wymyn are some of the most deluded on earth. My sister married a black south african. Needless to say that did not work out so well. Where have you seen brown boys do real work? Many are affirmative action hires at the government or the bank. Some do drive truck.

          1. ajl,

            “Some do drive truck.”
            Well, they attempt to drive a truck after getting their AZ license at a discount shop in Mississauga. The other day I watched a guy take 6 attempts to back up his semi to a dock door because he couldn’t figure out the angle. Saw another guy recently watching a video on his cell phone as he drove at 105 kmh on the QEW. Virtually every collision I see when a truck is involved, the driver is brown. And I see an average of 4-5/week truck-involved collisions on the highways between Hamilton and north Mississauga.

  3. It’s not for lack of work. I don’t want to serve the current system. I’ll look after my family just fine without being a servile employee thanks. Grow food and build home. Every thing after that is gravy.

  4. When you are paying for everything and receiving nothing but abuse in return..?
    Surprise surprise,you stop .
    Same principle as beating a dog.
    And then acting all surprised and righteous when it bites.
    As a life time slow learner,I have contributed way too much toward this society of parasites,sure I can fix just about anything, can’t fix stupid.
    And have taken way too many years to see the stupid for what they are..

    From the graph,the young men of America are much quicker to learn than I was.
    And the ghouls of “outsourcing” have profited mightily from the deliberate undermining of their own countries.
    As we watch “Just in Time” shipping become “No shipping at all”.
    “Investing in Welfare”..
    Liberalism is aa progressive disease,we are entering the terminal stage.
    Young Men being just the first victims.

    1. We are nothing but better off for outsourcing. Outsourcing is a prime reason my supercomputer phone is so cheap.

    2. These days there are all those the best man for the job is a woman propaganda. Well if you think so then you go do it.

      1. Looks where discrimination has gotten us.

        I refuse to even apply for a job that promises special treatment and advancement to every special group besides straight white males.

        Why would I want to work somewhere I start off at a disadvantage based purely on my skin color and beliefs?

        Unqualified low level management has ruined several great career opportunities for me already.

    3. “Just in Time” delivery is actually “Almost too Late” delivery. As you say it is or has become no shipping at all. Just in Time delivery became an excuse for warehousing on wheels instead of having sufficient material in stock or manufacturing it in-house.

  6. Why work if you’ll own nothing? You can more easier not own anything by not working. End up in the same place.

    Academics, admin drones, government want us like oxen to walk yoked to a grind stone.

    Lay down. Let it rot.

  7. It is good to see that the vast majority of those men are working and looking after their families.
    The climb will probably end at about 30%, that would be the number of useless people in general.
    This would include those that never left school and the professoriate that teaches utterly useless, rhetorical bullshit.
    That in itself is not objectionable if they do it on their own time and with their own money, go ahead, knock yourself out.
    This is not a natural progress, it is a learned behavior.
    When you get free money to buy some weed and other such, you don’t really have time for work, you feel good already.
    Slide into homelessness is just few degrees around the corner. There you will get approval of your peers, so to say.
    The baddest part is that those that go to work every morning for 8 hours+ have to pay for that.

  8. A lot of folks here speaking my mind. Young men might be asking “why would I” these days when it comes to work. Are they wrong ? I don’t know. I would think that all this mechanization, infrastructure and innovation should benefit the common man, rather than just filling corporate and government coffers. Weren’t we supposed to live lives of ease with robots doing all our work?

    1. “Weren’t we supposed to live lives of ease with robots doing all our work?”

      I know I am, but then again I got an education and applied it. See, the ‘common man’ needs to step it up or die off. The age of the Common Man is over, the age of the Cosmopolitan Achiever has begun.

      1. When there is nobody left to provide energy or food, never mind the cheap shiny trinkets that they enjoy, then the cosmopolitan achiever will be SOL….

          1. Grunters work to supply energy, food, water, services. Remember that while in the bread lines…oh wait, the grunters grow the wheat, grind the flour, bake the bread….

      2. unDORK
        You are a government drone, on welfare. Working a gov’t lab will not feed you when the walmart shelves are empty.

      3. Pro tip: Your so-called “elite” friends won’t clean your toilets or mend your roof. You best not wish them dead.

        I too, can be considered an elitist … because technology allows me to do what used to take 5-6 men to do. But I would NEVER look at a fellow human created by God as less than me. It takes a “special” kind of depraved megalomania to hate his “lessers” in such a manner. UnHuman is on a fast train to eternity in Hell where he will enjoy an eternity of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

        1. Nicely stated, sir. I hope you had a delightful Thanksgiving. You insights from the actual, bleeding edge of cultural confusion are much appreciated.

      4. The Cosmopolitan Achiever never built a damn thing. The Eloi have always had a free ride on the backs of the sloggers and doers.

      5. Gee, didn’t Amazon, Twittler, Groogle and Farcebook just lay-off nearly 40,000 “Cosmopolitan Achiever” laptop warriors, unDork? And funny, those companies are still hiring engineers.

        Maybe those 40,000 should learn to code, eh? Oh, wait…

    1. The government and family gladly keep feeding many sponges, many places cannot get any workers, never mind clean competent workers.

      1. Work sucks and is for many a necessary evil. I have nothing but admiration for people who can get through life without doing a “job”.

    2. D’ya have any IDEA how many construction tradesmen work for cash here in the unaffordable SF Bay Area? Virtually EVERY subcontractor

  10. I know several fellows between 45 and 70 – tradesmen, mechanics, general contractors – who, as a result of this Wuhan flu bullshit, are no longer “employed”.

    But they’re still working. 🙂

  11. If I remember correctly LBJ introduced welfare in the USA in 1965. How many of those men not seeking work are content with their EBT card?

    1. Their EBT cards and the cards of their baby mommas are a sideline to the drug and gangster cash they mainline grift. That adrenaline rush makes regular work seem lame. Of course getting ventilated after a deal does south is a downer. But hey it’s cool until you isn’t

  13. I think, just as a wild guess, that if you overlay the industry off-shored from the USA on that graph they’ll probably line up pretty good.

    Another wild guess, if you overlay the total percentage of taxes taken by all levels of government on that graph, it too will line up pretty good.

    And let’s not forget inflation, another blight that’s been gnawing away since the 1960s.

    There’s quite a few really obvious reasons for men to be “out of the labor market” as measured by this study. As mentioned by others, the entire housing/renovation sector runs on cash. Pretty low participation in the “official” jobs, lots of guys (barely) making a living.

    So really, I think much of what you’re looking at there is the men who refuse to cough up half their wages in tax. You want to watch what happens when that gets up around 30%.

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation