[expat_panama]

The facts are chilling and need to be considered. Will's conclusions were left out because they need not be considered (imho).

[USCG SimTech]

It’s not job growth if the number of new, never before existing jobs does not exceed the number of new, never held any job before citizens (graduates of colleges or H.S., legal immigrants, or those reaching legal age to work)

[Bryanw92]

I had to read the article. It’s amazing how they can bring Trump into that.

It’s all tied to marriage. When American men realized that marriage and children are a sucker bet, they didn’t need to worry about chasing the “American dream” anymore.

[wastoute]

Let’s see, for three decades we have been told we have to do this thing to help females and that thing to help females and spend a billion dollars to promote females and then, one day, we suddenly notice that males have been screwed? Astounding levels of brilliance from folks who consider themselves smart. Intellectuals, even. Morons, the lot of them.

[kearnyirish2]

For half a century our governments accepted that a majority of black males would contribute nothing to our country; if anything, they were a drain of resources. Now it is an issue because Hispanic and white men are doing the same?

I work with too many females who only hire other women (basically to protect their jobs from competition); they are reaping what they sow as they age without marriage/children. Many men realize they can toil as beast of burden without economic benefit (just paying bills for other people), and are instead choosing to prolong childhood until death.

Tough sh!t...

[Vermont Lt]

I was right in the tail end of that category. I closed down my private business and went back to the corporate world.

If I were a black female at that age, with my experience I would have gotten about twenty job offers (because most of the jobs I did not get went to 40+ year old black women.)

Being an old white guy is tough. It took almost a year of full time looking to get a job. It is a job I would have gotten when I was 25. The pay is about 1/3 of what I was making when last in the suit and tie world.

I am not bitter about the job I DID land. I like it and the people are great. But don’t kid yourself, finding a job after 50 was akin to an Irishman trying to find a job in Protestant Boston back in the 1840s.

[Pietro]

F*ck George Will!

[9YearLurker]

Isn’t it because it is too easy for them to go on “disability” for minor or trumped up reasons? Seems like a moral hazard that is putting them out of work, and the ones who should care about it are the taxpayers (primarily) and employers (secondarily) who have to pay for it.

I think of the firemen and police who check out of work for “disability” reasons. Even if they can no longer do physical work, there is plenty of nonphysical work (e.g., call centers) they could do, even from home.

And then there are those who “retire” for nearly regular pay by the time they are 50. Those tend to be government union employees, and again, the taxpayer gets the shaft on that.

[antidisestablishment]

in 1960 there were 134 workers for every one officially certified as disabled; by 2010 there were just over 16.

All the ranting and raving on FR about the loss of jobs overlooks this glaring fact. The vast majority of these "men" are voluntarily outside the workforce. They are not looking for a job; they are content to live off of the rest of us and steal benefits from those who are truly disabled.

Largely because of government benefits and support by other family members, nonworking men 25 to 54 have household expenditures a third higher than the average of those in the bottom income quintile. Hence, Eberstadt says, they "appear to be better off than tens of millions of other Americans today, including the millions of single mothers who are either working or seeking work."

Trump supporters need to remember all the enthusiasm in the world won't overcome self-interest. There is a growing class of people who make more money from benefits than many of the people working to support them. They don't attend rallies; they don't respond to surveys; they don't care about social, political, or economic arguments; but they will vote to ensure their gravy train keeps running. Their number was estimated around 42% the last election, and Obama has spent his entire career ensuring that number grows. The Democrats know 51% ensures them a permanent majority.

[txrefugee]

When a nation kicks God and His plan for families out of consideration, choosing to try once again to “improve” His model as given in the Bible, disaster results. How many times does this have to happen before the ungodly humanists are knocked off their perches in government, academia, and the media?

[FrankR]

I’m just an old, retired guy, but the solution is simple:

Up in the mountains there are signs telling people “Do Not Feed The Bears”. The rationale being if they get handouts from people, they will lose the ability (and the motivation) to hunt and feed themselves.

Stop the handouts, and people will get jobs, or go hungry.

[gogeo]

I’m automatically skeptical of studies and statistics, and especially studies employing statistics.

[Petrosius]

Everything is working as planed. Remove men as providers for wife and children while making them dependent of government and thus reliable Democrat votes.

[B212]

People, when I was growing up in the late 50s and early 60s, thousand of men worked in refineries and auto plants....the economy was booming...a factory floor labor could afford a house and family....today it is gone....if you have a trade, yes, you can make good money, but unskilled jobs are gone forever....

[CincyRichieRich]

But George still will vote Hitlery over Trump.

[Boogieman]

“After 88 consecutive months of the economic expansion that began in June 2009, a smaller percentage of American males in the prime working years (ages 25 to 54) are working than were working near the end of the Great Depression in 1940...”

Because the “expansion” is a conjurer’s trick. Whatever growth there is has been fueled by money pumped into the stock market by the government, not by wealth and job creation.

[MSF BU]

What these numbers don't take into account is the number of men who are very industrious but simply working in the black economy or without wages. An example might be somebody who manages his rental units and does not take any pay but reimburses himself generously for 'expenses' each month. It is easy enough to do. Likewise how many men do you know who 'retire' then go right back to work for cash only in landscaping, light construction, transportation, etc.? I know quite a few men & women who fall into this category.

As regards Will's statement "The collapse has coincided with a retreat from marriage ("the proportion of never-married men was over three times higher in 2015 than 1965"), which suggests a broader infantilization.": This is no doubt partially true, but it's also the case that people never meet the right person. They're not interested in what they can get and they can't get what they want thus no marriage. If they're is a solution to that I'm not aware of it.

[yoe]

"......Only about 15% of men 25 to 54 who worked not at all in 2014 said they were unemployed because they could not find work."

Last time I checked the unemployed could live very well on government subsistence....and probably other handouts from their communities. Americans have been weaned off the work ethic; Political Correctness has removed any shame or humiliation for not working. That may be an over-simplification but sure as heck part of the problem.IMHO.

[expat_panama]

Happy Thursday --stocks are up & metals are crashing not as bad as before!   Our 'confirmed uptrend' continues as major stock indexes rose a half % in rising volume.  Not only do futures traders say they'll be up another half %, they also say they'll go down today (?!).  Gold & silver are doin' the dead-cat-bounce now at $1,267.50 and $17.79.

Today's reports:

7:30 AM Challenger Job Cuts
8:30 AM Initial Claims
8:30 AM Continuing Claims
10:30 AM Natural Gas Inventories

Elsewhere:

Four Crucial Areas of Unfinished Business - Barack Obama, The Economist
Why Working Class White Men Earn Less Than in '96 - Tami Luhby, CNN
Good Truck Drivers Hard to Find as US Job Market Tightens - Bloomberg
Global Debt Hits a Staggering $152 Trillion - John Grgurich, Fiscal Times
Jeff Gundlach Thinks Economic Policy Pivot Is Coming - Linette Lopez, BI
Markets Struggle to Price Three Uncertainties - Mohamed El-Erian, BV
Stock Market 'Complacency' Is About to End - Tim Clift, MarketWatch
Economists Think Trump Trade Policies are 'Lunatic' - Thomas Edsall, NYT
Despite Brexit Turmoil, British Politics Is Healthy - Peter Apps, Reuters
TBTF? The Real Concern Is Banks Too Weak to Survive - Greg Robb, MW

[citizen]

This is rubbish. The current unemployment rate is 4.9%
I mean, they wouldn’t lie to us, right? 8-|

[Leep]

I would like to see George Will do a honest days work. Maybe putting 40 lb bags of bird seed on pallets. It would probably kill him.