By Laura PerrinsPosted on 08/25/2016 5:04:25 PM PDT by annalex
Something strange is going on with the working class men of America. Many in this class of men are no longer working, and it is not for the lack of jobs.
As Charles Murray explains in White America – while upper middle class men (and their wives) work more and more, working-class men work less and less to such and extent that we must insert those quotes – the working class man, is now the ‘working’ class man. This phenomenon has caught the attention of the White House and is said to have caused the rise of Donald Trump.
Both Murray and similar accounts confirm that although the collapse in traditional working class jobs is partly to blame, it is the collapse in working class culture that has driven this change.
In fact, an incredible ‘7 million American men between the ages of 25 and 54 are neither working nor looking for work. That amounts to 12 per cent of all men in those prime working ages – and that doesn’t count another 2 million who are looking for work but haven’t found it.’
These numbers are staggering and have commentators from Left to Right in a flap. In fact, “participation among prime-age men peaked in 1954, declined only slightly until the mid-1960s, and then began to decline in earnest in the decade between 1965 and 1975. Since then, participation has fallen persistently, with sharper declines in recessionary periods that were not fully reversed in the subsequent expansions,” according to this official White House report.
So it seems just as women were liberating themselves from the prison of the home, working class men have liberated themselves from work. Perhaps unsurprisingly one liberation – that of women – has been celebrated, but the other is causing panic.
Ah, but my feminist sisters say, these men are just the new modern man. They are taking over childcare and home duties while their partners go to work. That was our grand plan it is all coming to fruition. Not quite.
Instead, these men are having a bit of ‘me’ time. “They’re not spending any more time on child care or chores.” Instead these men spend up to 10.5 hours a day on media in all its form. They are playing Grand Theft Auto is what they are doing.
This commentator views this as an ominous sign, “the time and money these activities rob from relationships, work, and savings can hardly be overestimated.”
What has caused this collapse in work ethic in the ‘working’ class man – it cannot be solely the draw of the gaming experience? What, now remind me again, happened between 1965-1975 in the US? Ah yes that was second wave feminism telling men how they were ‘tying women to the kitchen sink’ while the husbands enjoyed the life of Riley outside it (The Feminine Mystique was published in 1963).
And the husbands were having a great time in the working world, were they are not? Here, Jack Arnold the patriarchal father in the classic Wonder Years, explains the fabulousness of it all to his son. “I get up at five in morning. I fight traffic; I bust my hump all day. I fight traffic again and then I come home. And then I pay my taxes. The end.” And Jack was middle-class - so you can just imagine what it was like for the working class man.
So should we really be surprised that the ‘working’ class man says, you know, thanks – but no thanks. What with welfare, he can just about make it through and no longer needs the often spirit crushing job he had to support his family.
Because this is something the feminists never thought through – men can opt-out and survive. They will not thrive, and I think ultimately it is at great personal loss to themselves and others, but if they don’t like the family and work deal offered, they’ll just opt-out of both. They will not organise, they will not take to Twitter they will just ‘socially withdraw.’
The truth is since the 1960s the working class man has not only seen his economic prospects hit, but more fundamentally his position in society has been trashed. The status he had as ‘head of the family’ no matter how menial and meaningless the job was on its own, had meaning and dignity as it sustained a family.
But this status has been gradually eroded over the decades, first by the feminists, who poured scorn on the husband who provides, then by the welfare state who said we can do this job better than you, and finally by the liberals who said fathers were surplus to requirements.
All of this spells disaster of course for the working class woman who is left scratching a living in low-paid jobs and welfare while holding the baby. This will cause the elite with their married dual career parents to pull further away, while the children of lone mothers fall further behind. And the liberals will continue to decry this ‘inequality’ without ever grasping the fact that they caused it.
That is because lack of jobs is a relative term, and here it is used as a binary, jobs or no jobs. The jobs that exist are not attracting people who are unmarried or divorced, and can go by on the margins of the society.
Nice Country song. Work on the music.
Hunger is also motivating people to vote for politicians who promise to bring welfare back, and increase it.
Yes.
Right — but divorce and custody laws such as they are, in addition to the loosened sexual behaviors, remove the incentive to marry.
True. I personally am happy paying for people With genuine disabilities I do not think its good or right for us to pay able- bodied people not to work.
How do you change that?
Re-industrialize.
1) They were excited about their heritage which had been suppressed by the commies for 80 years. In their case it was Genghis Kahn and Buddhism.
2) They were excited about their future. It was like the frontier, the wild west. Everything was new and there was no one telling them what they couldn’t do. The future was their opportunity and responsibility.
WE MAY HAVE TO GET RID OF THE USA TO GET RID OF THE SOUL CONSUMING JOBS...................
Without getting into the reasons, I don’t know why anyone would expect today’s young men to basically slave for the rest of the population while being marginalized legally by the government (and by extension the private-sector economy). The US is getting a lesson in what life without white guys looks like; I’ve maintained for years now that the demographic shift in this country is happening much more quickly than is being reported.
I think you have to look at the marriage issue in light of economic prospects as well; if college classes have been 60%+ for years now, there is a ripple effect where more and more men can’t sustain a family. Some that try watch their wives simply leave for a more financially secure man, so they lose their wife and any children (for all intents and purposes).
Word-of-mouth has spread word of the risks much more effectively than the media can suppress it...
The difference is that the USSR was beyond repair since its inception as a militant atheist state. The USA were born in good will under God and can be redeemed.
But once the white young man realizes that, what would his choice be?
1) Opt out of everything, watch porn and play video games.
2) Beat the rest of the population on whatever playing field he got: excel in college, compete your way into the upper middle class.
3) Work to change the culture that is dumbing him down.
Those who choose (1) should be, at least, reminded that (2, 3) is available. Not guaranteed success at (2, 3), but a fulfilling life doing (2, 3).
But that would be occurring far less if divorce laws found fault in adulterous and rent-seeking behavior.
Of course the divorce laws (and now laws redefining marriage as well) would not be as disastrous for our nation as they are if Christian culture remained the foundation of all laws.
#2 just has him paying for other peoples’ children (and if he excels in his field, he is supporting people a lot less motived/driven than he is).
I believe many of them are already doing #3; Trump has a nice lead in that demographic.
The problem is that regardless of the divorce laws, the poor guy has someone else living with his kids somewhere else and he becomes an involuntary part-time dad. This issue is magnified 100X when kids are in the picture; it is a much more significant risk than simple alimony.
The USA were born in good will under God and can be redeemed.
Yes, economic success means, in part, paying for someone else’s children.
Not regardless. Broken families is a recent phenomenon; 50 years ago it was quite rare because the party guilty of adultery wouldn't get custody.
That’s a valid point; I didn’t think about that because it is before my time. The current mess has always been this way to me...
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