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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, @09:26PM
A friend-of-a-friend was charged with rape by a girl, after an encounter at a nightclub in town. My friend, a witness, was interviewed by the police, and his statement was that the girl started getting really amorous with his friend, then literally dragged him off to the toilets, and they both came back with dishevelled hair. She spent the rest of the night cuddling into the guy.
Apparently, the next day she woke up, decided that she wouldn't have done that and it was the guy's fault and rang the police.
This only ended well when the the girl's flatmate talked to my friend, then rang the police and explained to them that this particular girl had done this same thing at least three times previously - she goes out with her friends, gets drunk, latches onto the nearest guy, drags him off for a quick fuck, and then realizes (after she sobers up) that she wouldn't have done that if she was sober so clearly he raped her.
The case was thrown out based on that testimony. My friend rang the police and asked them if that information would be introduced to the cases on the former complainants, to which the police responded "Only if they ask for it, otherwise no."
Gotta get those convictions.
My mother was awarded custody in spite of significant evidence that she was mentally unbalanced. (See below.) She's stamped on my (then 2-year-old) head, giving me at least a moderate brain injury, she often played mind games against her children (not telling us something and then ridiculing us for carrying on with the information we had). She had a partner who was violent toward us (he'd slam me head first into walls as punishment, as a 5 year old) and did nothing to prevent it. She lied in court, lied to the police, the judge called her mad (to which her lawyer responded with "I know!"). When I was fifteen, she told me that if I "really want to get someone, get them to touch you and then punch yourself lightly on the same spot until a bruise appears."
She set fire to my bedroom just so she could have an excuse to move out of the house, gave the local (country) cop a lie that made no sense, and he investigated no further.
When they first divorced, she was given the house that was being paid for by my father, and she eventually sold it. I moved once a year, every year, until I was at high school, once we moved just across the road.
The courts felt that, even with the evidence that she is a nutjob, she would look after us better than my father could have (he's a binge alcoholic).
My mother did this to my father, a number of times. I can vaguely recall one incident (my brother remembers it more clearly).
Once, she rang him at work (not realising she had an audience) and invited him over to view some of my school work, while my brother was at pre-school.
He got back to work to find the police waiting, who arrested and charged him for beating her up.
In court, she turned up covered in bruises. It was discovered that she'd beaten herself up (!!) and then had him arrested for it, just to get at him. It wasn't even the first time she'd done, but the only time it was proved.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Monday December 15 2014, @11:40PM
You should play Binding of Isaac.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek