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Binyamin Appelbaum writes at the NYT that the share of prime-age men — those 25 to 54 years old — who are not working has more than tripled since the late 1960s, to 16 percent as many men have decided that low-wage work will not improve their lives, in part because deep changes in American society have made it easier for them to live without working. These changes include the availability of federal disability benefits; the decline of marriage, which means fewer men provide for children; and the rise of the Internet, which has reduced the isolation of unemployment. Technology has made unemployment less lonely says Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University, who argues that the Internet allows men to entertain themselves and find friends and sexual partners at a much lower cost than did previous generations. Perhaps most important, it has become harder for men to find higher-paying jobs as foreign competition and technological advances have eliminated many of the jobs open to high school graduates. The trend was pushed to new heights by the last recession, with 20 percent of prime-age men not working in 2009 before partly receding. But the recovery is unlikely to be complete. "Like turtles flipped onto their backs, many people who stop working struggle to get back on their feet," writes Appelbaum. "Some people take years to return to the work force, and others never do "
A study published in October by scholars at the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for Family Studies estimated that 37 percent of the decline in male employment since 1979 can be explained by this retreat from marriage and fatherhood (PDF). “When the legal, entry-level economy isn’t providing a wage that allows someone a convincing and realistic option to become an adult — to go out and get married and form a household — it demoralizes them and shunts them into illegal economies,” says Philippe Bourgois, an anthropologist who has studied the lives of young men in urban areas. “It’s not a choice that has made them happy. They would much rather be adults in a respectful job that pays them and promises them benefits.”
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 15 2014, @08:07PM
There are more options available to men than in the past. Many of them superior.
I have three friends approaching middle age that all live together. They all are college educated, don't have trouble finding work and seemingly have a never ending parade of attractive women to choose from. Instead of the traditional lifestyle they pooled resources and make their money doing low investment moderate return tasks. One writes articles online, another has a very well paying union job that only takes 15 hours a week, the last one changes so frequently that it is hard to keep track. Combined they might spend 35 hours a week working and are not at all pressed for money. They also happen to be the happiest people I know.
Really, why should men work 60 hours at a job that could be outsourced at any time to win the affections of women that inevitably take more than they give when we can live like this now? It is becoming increasingly clear that marriage is a trap, careers are a trap, large sums of money do not bring happiness, and blind ambition towards those ends is a life not worth living.
(Score: 2) by dcollins on Tuesday December 16 2014, @05:21AM
An interesting thesis. Could it be (in part) that this has always been the case -- it's just that that knowledge is easier to transmit and display, harder to miss, than it was in prior generations? In other words, the whole "How 'Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm? (After They've Seen Paree)" effect, where modern communications make everyone see "Paree" for free.