376 “All the (Unemployed) Young Dudes”

<p>I am usually among the most allergic to broad, immutable-characteristic-based analyses along the lines of “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/29/opinion/crisis-men-masculinity.html" target="_blank">The Crisis of Men and Boys</a>.” Some of this is the usual self-loathing—<em>Screw</em> guys, especially if they’re 54-year-old baseball fanatics from California!, etc. But also, probably due to the extended influence of the man formerly known as <a href="https://wethefifth.substack.com/p/members-only-136-the-adventures-of#details" target="_blank">Casanova Brown</a>, I have seen too often the fact-bending, anti-individualist and too often punitive ideological temptations of sorting humans into various pens and making grand statements about the resulting statistics.</p><p>However! When tasked during a recent <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/real-time-with-bill-maher/ep-611-wynton-marsalis-scott-galloway-matt-welch" target="_blank">media appearance</a> to have comments on The Trouble With Males, I stumbled across a stunning (to me) chart at the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/civilian-labor-force-participation-rate.htm" target="_blank">Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>, showing that the employment rate for dudes between 2001 and 2021 was down in every age bracket younger than 55, and <em>up</em> in every cohort after 55. Dramatic numbers, too—16-19-year-old males went from 50% to 36%; 20-24s from 82% to 73%, and so on. If we’re getting to the point where half of men have never worked before the age of 25, that’s a profoundly different America than some of us old farts grew up in.</p><p>So when I received a publicist email saying that the Bradley Prize-winning American Enterprise Institute economist Nicholas Eberstadt had just come out with a brand new post-pandemic edition of his groundbreaking 2016 study <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Men-Without-Work-Post-Pandemic-Threats/dp/1599475979" target="_blank"><em>Men Without Work</em></a>, I leaped at the chance to talk to him about this subject that I cared not at all about just one month ago. Hoo-ray for the on-the-job learning!</p><p>Eberstadt, as you will soon hear, has a more interesting pedigree than your average math professor, with a wife who writes about the sexual revolution and identity politics, a sister who was in Warhol’s Factory, one grandfather who was Ogden Nash, and another who co-founded the CIA. And don’t worry, we also talk a bit about commies.</p><p>-- The myth of “full employment”</p><p>-- NILFs</p><p>-- “There is absolutely nothing good that comes out of this trend”</p><p>-- “Uncannily, weirdly, eerily regular”</p><p>-- “There's no country in the rich world that has had such a steep radical and continuing drop as the U.S.A.”</p><p>-- The Lost Decade, and the New Misery</p><p>-- Wealth without growth</p><p>-- The populist reaction</p><p>-- “They don’t do civil society”</p><p>-- Immigrants get the job done</p><p>-- California vs. Texas on immigrant welfare</p><p>-- Schmancy Bobbleman vs. the feminists</p><p>-- The ex-felon factor</p><p>-- They’re all on disability</p><p>-- We just did a national UBI experiment</p><p>-- Get a job, teens!</p><p>-- Does this also explain woke/cancel stuff?</p><p>-- We weren’t gonna let that Warhol connection slide</p><p>-- Nor the CIA grandpa</p><p>-- Charles Murray, Tim Carney, J.D. Vance</p><p>-- North Korea’s role in Russia’s failing war</p> <br /><br />This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://www.wethefifth.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_2">www.wethefifth.com/subscribe</a>