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posted by Fnord666 on Monday March 20 2017, @10:09AM   Printer-friendly
from the rent-is-due dept.

As video games get better and job prospects worse, more young men are dropping out of the job market to spend their time in an alternate reality. Ryan Avent suspects this is the beginning of something big

[...] Over the last 15 years there has been a steady and disconcerting leak of young people away from the labour force in America. Between 2000 and 2015, the employment rate for men in their 20s without a college education dropped ten percentage points, from 82% to 72%. In 2015, remarkably, 22% of men in this group – a cohort of people in the most consequential years of their working lives – reported to surveyors that they had not worked at all in the prior 12 months. That was in 2015: when the unemployment rate nationwide fell to 5%, and the American economy added 2.7m new jobs. Back in 2000, less than 10% of such men were in similar circumstances.

What these individuals are not doing is clear enough, says Erik Hurst, an economist at the University of Chicago, who has been studying the phenomenon. They are not leaving home; in 2015 more than 50% lived with a parent or close relative. Neither are they getting married. What they are doing, Hurst reckons, is playing video games. As the hours young men spent in work dropped in the 2000s, hours spent in leisure activities rose nearly one-for-one. Of the rise in leisure time, 75% was accounted for by video games. It looks as though some small but meaningful share of the young-adult population is delaying employment or cutting back hours in order to spend more time with their video game of choice.

TFA is worth reading in full. Much more deliberative than usual.

Previously on SoylentNews: Why Ever Stop Playing Video Games?


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  • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @10:54AM (25 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @10:54AM (#481436)

    End welfare benefits, and we'll have so many people fighting for the job of caring for EF in his retirement home, you won't believe your eyes. The real fight won't be caring for EF though, it will be for jobs picking tomatoes and lettuce. Just end welfare. We don't need workers, we need HUNGRY WORKERS. Make them bastards as hungry as the Mexicans, and they'll beg for a job.

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  • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by c0lo on Monday March 20 2017, @11:11AM (12 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 20 2017, @11:11AM (#481439) Journal

    Mmmm... improvisation on a given theme.

    Problem is: if you drive them in agriculture, they'll soon find pitchforks. Perhaps NRA will find a post-abundance opportunity to sell them some semi-autos on loan - they'll have to do something to stay in business.

    Plus, they do have re-spawning as a reflex - may not happen in real life, but it's good enough if they believe it once.

    The result? You may delay it for a short while, but you'll find you still need Mexican immigration

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 20 2017, @01:08PM (11 children)

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 20 2017, @01:08PM (#481474)

      The USA needs Mexican immigration about as much as Israel needs arab immigration, or as much as China and Japan need immigration. Maybe after they open their borders we should follow suit. Until then I think we should copy the policies of Israel (our greatest ally) and China and Japan.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Monday March 20 2017, @01:49PM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 20 2017, @01:49PM (#481487) Journal

        The USA needs Mexican immigration about as much as Israel needs arab immigration,

        Mmmhmmm... careful what you wish for...

        Let's take some numbers:
        - Israel population: 8 mil. Number of arab workers in Israel [independent.co.uk]: at least 500,000.
        - USA population: 320 mil.

        Turns out you are actually saying: "The USA economy needs 20,000,000 Mexican workers".

        ---

        If you insist in "but... immigration not workforce!", the same source states: "It is estimated that of Israel’s 1.5million Arab citizens..." - which should translate using your rule in "The USA needs at total of 60,000,000 citizens of Mexican origin".

        It turns out that the number of Mexican-origin citizens, including those born in USA [pewhispanic.org] falls short of the 60 mils.
        So, granting your wish ad litteram, you'd still need about 15 mils extra Mexican immigrants (and I'm padding the number for safety, the quoted data is 2013 showing about 35 mils only. Let's say 2013 to 2016, an increase to 45 mils).

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Monday March 20 2017, @02:58PM (9 children)

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday March 20 2017, @02:58PM (#481519) Journal

        I think we should copy the policies of Israel (our greatest ally)

        Why is it Democrats and certain others are waxing hysterical about Trump's wall when they have said nada about Israel's mega-wall for the last decade? They are an order of magnitude more awful to people who want to cross their borders than America is. If what Trump wants to do is facism, then what does that make Israel which is already there? If it's racist for Trump to subject muslims and others to extreme vetting, then what is it when Israel does far worse?

        Why does Israel get the free pass to do exactly what Trump wants to do?

        Me, I think both Israel and Trump are wrong on these matters. Building walls on borders is ineffective and contrary to freedom and democracy and the open societies those require. America has absorbed great numbers of immigrants before without any real long-term harm. Give them their own official holiday on the calendar like we gave the Irish St. Patrick's Day and they can happily take their place next to the rest of us as cat's paws for Wall Street bankers, K Street lobbyists, and other such worthless scum.

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
        • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @04:30PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @04:30PM (#481571)

          Why is it Democrats and certain others are waxing hysterical about Trump's wall when they have said nada about Israel's mega-wall for the last decade? They are an order of magnitude more awful to people who want to cross their borders than America is. If what Trump wants to do is facism, then what does that make Israel which is already there? If it's racist for Trump to subject muslims and others to extreme vetting, then what is it when Israel does far worse?

          Why does Israel get the free pass to do exactly what Trump wants to do?

          Me, I think both Israel and Trump are wrong on these matters. Building walls on borders is ineffective and contrary to freedom and democracy and the open societies those require. America has absorbed great numbers of immigrants before without any real long-term harm. Give them their own official holiday on the calendar like we gave the Irish St. Patrick's Day and they can happily take their place next to the rest of us as cat's paws for Wall Street bankers, K Street lobbyists, and other such worthless scum.

          Uhh... what? Who have you been listening to and where have you been getting your news.

          Liberals have been complaining about Israel's treatment of the Palestinians for ages, comparing it to things like East and West Germany. There have been numerous humanitarian complaints about how the people in the occupied lands are effectively being blockaded, due their only neutral real port of entry for trade being a sometimes-open-sometimes-closed border with Egypt. In fact, if you look in Europe, there are numerous anti-Israel (note: one can be anti-Israel while being pro-Jewish) sentiments, especially among the leftist groups.

          Typically it is the political right who is pro-Israel, as the "only functional democracy in the middle east" and numerous other things. Democrats are much less full-throated in support of the middle east.

          Of course, it is far more complicated and nuanced than this; if my neighbors regularly shot missiles at me I'm sure I'd be more heavy-handed in response as well. However, it's not like the Democrats are being at all hypocritical, unlike a certain "the election is riggged... wait, you mean I won, I'm sure it was a landslide in a completely honest election" President.

          • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday March 21 2017, @01:57PM (2 children)

            by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday March 21 2017, @01:57PM (#482120) Journal

            Liberals have been complaining about Israel's treatment of the Palestinians for ages, comparing it to things like East and West Germany.

            Not in this country (US). Sure, maybe in the Socialist Worker, but not in any major media outlet. In English-speaking media there is an unwritten commandment that everyone knows and no one will even utter, "Thou Shalt Not Criticize Israel." If you do, you're an anti-Semite and insta-Nazi. Go directly to Jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

            --
            Washington DC delenda est.
            • (Score: 1) by WillR on Wednesday March 22 2017, @07:18PM (1 child)

              by WillR (2012) on Wednesday March 22 2017, @07:18PM (#482900)
              Hmmmm. Liberals say something, but you don't see it on the cable TV and in the major papers every day. I wonder how that happens. It's almost like the so-called "liberal media" is a myth, or something.
              • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday March 23 2017, @03:40AM

                by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday March 23 2017, @03:40AM (#483068) Journal

                Vanishingly few of them say so among themselves, either. I've been active in the progressive grassroots in NYC for 20 years and in all that time have known exactly one guy who objects to Israel's treatment of Palestinians. And before that in the Green Party in Chicago I knew no one who did. The only ones I have read who do are socialists, but there are extremely few of them in the US, even less than there are Greens.

                But like I said, maybe people in other countries have latitude to criticize Israel but in America it's social and politically fraught because of the thought police.

                --
                Washington DC delenda est.
        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Monday March 20 2017, @05:01PM (2 children)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 20 2017, @05:01PM (#481584) Journal

          Me, I think both Israel and Trump are wrong on these matters. Building walls on borders is ineffective and contrary to freedom and democracy and the open societies those require.

          Works for Israel because their neighbors are far more hostile. The thing is, Mexico isn't hostile to the US like the Palestinian territories are to Israel. There just isn't a compelling need for a wall. If the US legalized most recreational drugs, started punishing employment of illegal immigrants, and had an immigration policy that made sense, then it would eliminate any need for a wall.

          • (Score: 2) by rondon on Tuesday March 21 2017, @12:49PM

            by rondon (5167) on Tuesday March 21 2017, @12:49PM (#482076)

            I would normally just mod a post like this as "insightful," but I don't think I've ever agreed with Khallow on three points in a row before. Incredible ;)

          • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday March 21 2017, @01:30PM

            by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday March 21 2017, @01:30PM (#482098) Journal

            Works for Israel because their neighbors are far more hostile. The thing is, Mexico isn't hostile to the US like the Palestinian territories are to Israel.

            Also we're not pushing into Mexican territory and then ethnically cleansing them (yet, although we might if VLM gets his way).

            Completely agree with you on your other points.

            --
            Washington DC delenda est.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @05:37PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @05:37PM (#481617)

          Immigration of like-minded people isn't bad, at least as long as the numbers don't let them section themselves off with their own language. Like-minded people can integrate.

          With the Mexicans, the "like-minded" aspect is questionable, and the numbers have already created Spanish-only areas. We need to stop at least until the existing immigrants start exclusively using English.

          With the rapefugees, we have bigger problems. They kill their own daughters for dating non-Muslims. They kill those who convert. They have a dress code which ensures that they can reject non-Muslims and encourages non-Muslims to reject them. Integration will never happen. This is an invasion with demographic replacement. There is no majority-Muslim country in the world that is not fucked up and horrible; we should not welcome this fate.

          • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday March 21 2017, @01:52PM

            by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday March 21 2017, @01:52PM (#482117) Journal

            You mean like those pesky German immigrants who insisted on continuing to make their own ethnic foods and speaking German in their neighborhoods and amongst themselves. Or the dirty Italians. Or the silly Poles? Lithuanians? Chinese? Norwegians? Continuing to make and consume the abomination that is lutefisk is not integration, my friend.

            All those other groups still cluster together in neighborhoods. They have their own religious institutions and festivals and customs. Some of them have been here for generations and they still don't speak English and even print newspapers in their own languages. My father-in-law has been here for 40 years and only speaks enough English to run a dry-cleaning store.

            As for punishing their own members who try to integrate, that's nothing new or exceptional either. In college my filipino buddy fell in love with a Lithuanian girl. Her family has been in America since they fled the Soviet invasion at the beginning of WWII. They found out about her dating my friend, and refused to speak to her or have anything to do with her because she A) was dating a non-Lithuanian and B) was dating somebody who is not white. My friend and the girl thought they were in the clear because they're both Catholic, but no.

            But, hey, it's always possible the rest of us have it wrong, and you have it right. Look, we let the Italians stay and what do they do? Start up the Cosa Nostra and bring rampant criminality to our fair land. Let's chuck them all out. Let them go back to Italy and choke on their pasta. And the Irish, fuck. Think how much better Boston would be without those people and their crime and alcoholism and fighting. Let them go back to Cork and eat potatoes. Much the same with the Russians--come in and start violent mafia criminal gangs. Send 'em back!

            Finns can stay. They mostly keep to themselves in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and play hockey. Canadians, too. Mostly harmless.

            --
            Washington DC delenda est.
  • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by VLM on Monday March 20 2017, @01:05PM (11 children)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 20 2017, @01:05PM (#481473)

    Speaking of hungry Mexicans the reason why a quarter of Mexico's population is in the USA is because of NAFTA replacing Mexican corn farmers with Iowa corn farmers. There's literally no jobs in Mexico that aren't corrupt as hell pemex and those are going away because Mexico is pumped out, and weed farmers / narco-terrorists. Some tourism but a couple Gringos per year visiting some beach in between getting beheaded and raped by the narcos isn't going to feed 120 million Mexicans.

    My gut level guess is Trump's reaction to getting inevitably blocked on the wall will be to send M1A1 tanks into Mexico City. Having a failed narco-state on your southern border is an obvious clear and present danger. In an ideal world we'd turn Mexico and Canada into states. We'd steal Canada's health care system which is better than ours, have the army execute the narcoterrorists running Mexico at dawn, instantly wipe out the whole legal vs illegal thing...

    Its not like the Mexicans could stop us, because any Mexican with a work ethic and motivation and skills immigrated to like, Kansas or whatever, a decade ago. There isn't much left in Mexico.

    Mexico already has a wall on its southern border, and not being a white country they're allowed to protect their borders, and they don't have much of an illegal problem like we do, so one interesting way for Trump to "acquire a southern wall" would be to take Mexico's wall.

    Every republican for my whole life has been "literally Hitler" according to the special snowflakes, so Trump getting us a bit of Lebensraum wouldn't be much of an additional propaganda problem.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Monday March 20 2017, @03:10PM (4 children)

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday March 20 2017, @03:10PM (#481525) Journal

      Speaking of hungry Mexicans the reason why a quarter of Mexico's population is in the USA is because of NAFTA replacing Mexican corn farmers with Iowa corn farmers.

      Maize was domesticated in Mexico thousands of years ago. They pioneered organized agriculture in the New World, and in some sense it's they who have fed us. One trade treaty that's 20-30 years old is not going to undo that.

      so Trump getting us a bit of Lebensraum wouldn't be much of an additional propaganda problem.

      Why in the heck would we need Mexico for lebensraum? Have you ever been out of a metropolitan area in your life? Ever? If we approached the population densities of many other places in the world we could fit the entire US population in North Dakota. And we have lots of North Dakotas and even a handful of TexaCaliAlaskas. Even all the people China has are concentrated in a relatively small portion of that country's total area. In short, we have enough room in the current United States for a couple billion more people.

      Undertaking an anschluss of Mexico would gain us nothing vis-a-vis the narco mafia. They would simply be institutionalized in our system, with American Congressmen taking over as the recipients of the bribes. Unless you're talking about a Final Solution for Mexicans, which, given your posting history might be what you're hinting at.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 20 2017, @05:29PM (3 children)

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 20 2017, @05:29PM (#481608)

        Why in the heck would we need Mexico for lebensraum?

        Ah I think you're misinterpreting the use of lebensraum in the PR. See Trump is a republican which according to the nutcases means he's already literally Hitler just by party affiliation, therefore the PR backlash from the democratic party media after the occupation begins can be short circuited because hitlers gotta hitler therefore getting some lebensraum is just something hitlers do. Why leave the 6th army in Stalingrad, well, hitlers gotta hitler, thats just their thing, ya know.

        Unless you're talking about a Final Solution for Mexicans, which, given your posting history might be what you're hinting at.

        Ah no they're not really a problem. Or not a problem that requires that kind of solution, anyway.

        From a nationalist point of view being one big country might have some interesting effects WRT people being able to stay in their homes with their own people if we're all one big (happy?) country. Why move all the Oaxacans to the chicken plant in Oklahoma if you can simply move the chicken plant to Oaxaca, after all.

        It might be a "final solution" for the narco terrorist beheader types. I don't think many people will miss them, on either side of the border.

        Corn production in MX is an interesting graph given the relatively non-meme looking meme that they're here because our NAFTA destroyed their farms. Basically almost everything heard or read about NAFTA is fake news on one level or another. When I pulled the actual production data a minute ago I was surprised. I guess you can't believe everything you see on CNN, which I guess I was an idiot to listen to anyway.

        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @05:41PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @05:41PM (#481621)

          I suppose you imply that corn production went up in Mexico. OK, but what about the jobs? If we bankrupted the farmers (like USA a century ago) and that caused the creation of large mechanized farms, there is still an unemployment issue.

          • (Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday March 21 2017, @12:30PM

            by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 21 2017, @12:30PM (#482068)

            That is an interesting way to resolve the meme that NAFTA meant the subsistence farmers all had to move to California while simultaneously factory farming in Mexico has increased overall corn levels. I was reading the meme as being false with the implication that production ceased in MX in favor of Iowa or whatever, which is not the case, but the meme may be true anyway. I suppose I could investigate further, but...

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @10:15PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @10:15PM (#481818)

          Trump is a Republican? Well, since he is the President and he ran under the R-brand, I guess he is by definition . . .

    • (Score: 0, Troll) by i286NiNJA on Monday March 20 2017, @03:39PM

      by i286NiNJA (2768) on Monday March 20 2017, @03:39PM (#481541)

      Look at your soft feelings get hurt when someone compares you to hitler.
      You elected trump you dumb fuck I can call you whatever I want, the age of PC niceness is over and you're a fucking fascist. But not even a cool hardass fascist with hugo boss jackboots you're a pepe humping incel with a hipster haircut.

      The era of political correctness is over!! Harden up snowflake!

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday March 20 2017, @05:04PM (3 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 20 2017, @05:04PM (#481586) Journal

      In an ideal world we'd turn Mexico and Canada into states.

      What would be the value in that? Especially, in the near certainty that the natives wouldn't like that? That indicates to me a variety of initial assumptions that really need looking at.

      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 20 2017, @05:13PM (2 children)

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 20 2017, @05:13PM (#481596)

        Perhaps we could reduce the level of narco violence down the mere level of Baltimore or Chicago. That would be a considerable improvement.

        Its also an interesting political hack on illegals not having to either kick them out or amnesty them, merely take their country.

        As for taking the Canadians that is an attempt at demographic balance, although their population only being a 1/3 of Mexico its not an effective balance.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday March 20 2017, @06:38PM (1 child)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 20 2017, @06:38PM (#481665) Journal
          Mexico is four times as large as Iraq was in population and almost five times as large in land area. And it has a large narco/guerilla population which has already had plenty of opportunity to practice hiding and waging war against Mexico's military forces. The US won't be able to take over the country and reduce its violence level to Baltimore levels without a lot of bloodshed.

          Canada may be less difficult to control population-wise, but it's a high tech population. If they so choose, there could be a lot of dead people from more sophisticated terrorist attacks than Mexico can muster.

          And what exactly does the US gain for all this grief? We still get the illegal immigrants, except we made them US residents and access to resources we already had access to.
          • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 20 2017, @08:01PM

            by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 20 2017, @08:01PM (#481726)

            Thought experiment, send in the M1A1 tanks AND legalize. Hmm. You can fight on the front lines and lose, or you can try guerrilla work but it'll be completely unfunded due to legalization.

            A significant fraction of their population is here. I'm not sure if that would help or hinder, but its certainly different than the recent re-enactment of the Crusades in the middle east.

            Ya know, as the Chinese figured out half a century ago, you can't have a failed nation on your southern border. One way or another mexico has to get cleaned up. End the drug war one way or another, get used to pemex and oil production being over. I guess I'm saying if you're next door to a failed state, its not an option to clean it up or not, its merely a question of how you're going to clean it up. May as well go in with a plan.

            As for what we gain from Canada, well, hot Canadian women and maple syrup and ice hockey, perhaps all three at the same time. The peace terms would involve us "stealing" their health care system and having them administrate it over us. Strange thought experiment... we're assuming we win against Canada... if on paper we lose and they impose a civilized health care system on us, its not like anyone in the usa is going to go all "red dawn" on our maple syrup overlords. "Oh darn, while our entire army was south of the rio grande the Canadians drove a convoy of Subarus playing Sarah McLaughlin into wash DC and took over and what a shame the most corrupt health care system on the planet will get replaced by the Canadian system, oh darn it all to heck"

            I'm just saying, in a "war as politics by other means" sense, we get a unified economic and political block and legalized weed (if not more) and no narco terror, I'm not really seeing a huge problem here especially if people in all three countries kinda see whats up and cooperate.

    • (Score: 1) by marknmel on Tuesday March 21 2017, @02:31AM

      by marknmel (1243) on Tuesday March 21 2017, @02:31AM (#481935) Homepage

      >In an ideal world we'd turn Mexico and Canada into states.

      How dare you. Not my circus, not my monkeys. I'll be over here with the moose and geese.

      --
      There is nothing that can't be solved with one more layer of indirection.