Posted on 03/31/2006 4:35:06 AM PST by Timeout
The romantic comedy "Failure to Launch," which opened as the No. 1 movie in the nation this month, has substantially exceeded pre-launch predictions, taking in more than $64 million in its first three weeks.
[snip]
...a young man who is affable, intelligent, good-looking -- and completely unmotivated. He's still living at home and seems to have no ambitions beyond playing video games, hanging out with his buddies (two young men who are also still living with their parents) and having sex.
[snip]
...According to the Census Bureau, fully one-third of young men ages 22 to 34 are still living at home with their parents -- a roughly 100 percent increase in the past 20 years. No such change has occurred with regard to young women. Why?
[snip]
...We've batted around lots of ideas. Maybe the problem has to do with the way the school curriculum has changed. Maybe it has to do with environmental toxins that affect boys differently than girls (not as crazy an idea as it sounds). Maybe it has to do with changes in the workforce, with fewer blue-collar jobs and more emphasis on the service industry. Maybe it's some combination of all of the above, or other factors we haven't yet identified.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
It's been so long since the personnel world was normal that people forget: Married men are more productive and hard-working than unmarried men or women. George Gilder's Men and Marriage has excellent stats on this, and there are no doubt more recent sources, too.
Hiring is a process where you estimate future behavior as well as past experience and qualifications. That's why a married man, in the real world, gets extra points for being who he is.
Ignoring "life-style" factors in a hire is objectively insane, but employers are under immense legal and cultural pressure to pretend that a married man who lives in the suburbs and a single gal with a nose ring who lives in a bad part of Brooklyn and goes to clubs at nightwho happen to have gone to the same collegeare equally qualified. From an employer's point of view, she's more of a risk for being unreliable, but he's not supposed to take that into account.
The cultural logic of today's human-resources culture:
Failing to discriminate against men = artificially propping men up.
CC&E
No, it is not insulting to men of past generations. I can remember when women didn't work, at all, there was no birth control, and marriage was promoted by shotgun.
I'm inclined to agree. I joined the Navy at 18, went to college at 25, and became an engineer. I don't look at myself as being super motivated or super smart (I graduated college with a 3.2 GPA and it was a battle to get those grades). The first step is the hardest, the world is full of people whose only barrier is that they never made an attempt.
shoot....my parents had me out of the house every am at age 10 doing a paper route....by high school working two summer jobs...would'nt even have had the nerve to think about returning home after college....my father raised my brother and I to be independent and proud of it.
"Environmental toxin"???? |
liberalism/socialism turning off the motor is certainly a contributor to changing interests.
prior to 20 years ago it was harder to get food, shelter, sex and entertainment without a decent job. prior to 50 years ago it was downright impossible. at home now with the folks you can easily get three of these necessities. with the government and girls being easy who needs a life?
I agree parents are partly to blame--some can't deal with the thought of losing their "kids". My son is a HS junior, but my wife doesn't want him going off to school--she wants him going to a closer (but inferior) college. She's also starting to talk about how he can live here (or at least close to home) after he graduates. On the other hand, I want him to get out and experience life. IMHO, I'm not doing him (or me) any favors when by keeping him in the nest. All my wife can think of is that she doesn't want to lose her little boy. [On the other hand, I want my daughter close to home so I can keep an eye on her.]
It used to be that you weren't looked at as a "man" until you got out on your own, fended for yourself, and started a family. Unfortunately, the perception of what constitutes being a "man" has changed. Many people think that people who get married in their 20s are suckers.
I heard that, and I wondered how estrogen could still be estrogen after it is metabolized. Europeans worry about hormones in our beef, too, but it seems bogus to me.
Saved
My, how "conventional" of you! LOL! (I agree with everything you said.)
Yes, parents are to blame. But! How many times have we all complained about a culture that makes a parent's job so much harder? That's the context I was using. Parents might well have a hard time today convincing a boy that his future wife was going to expect him to have a good career and be prepared to protect his family.
The employer was looking out for his own interests, which employee is going to work harder to keep the promotion, a single guy who can pick up stakes and move at any time or the man with a wife, two kids and a banker to support?
I have learned from some business success coaches I know that political ideology is not just a harmless hobby. It also influences success. People who spew leftist ideology about how rotten everything is and how it is rigged by the evil corporations against the little guy and the shrinking middle class which will finally be done in by floods from global warming are programmed to be depressed and pessimistic about their own prospects in life. The coaches are busy reprograming them.
What reason is there for a young man to do any different?
Even if he finds the girl of his dreams, she's going to want to delay marriage until she's played the field, delay children until she has established a carreer, and delay setting up a permanent household until she has exhausted all the entertaining options of city life.
Unless a fellow is a complete self-starter, there is no compelling reason for him to strike out on his own.
"He might give preference to a married man with two babies as opposed to one who was still single and playing the field. That's all I was saying."
Now they prefer single guys, because we can show up for work at 9 in the morning, stay until 9 at night, and work some more on weekends. Married guys can't do that, especially if they have kids.
Contrast that with a non-conformist dude with no kids, who doesn't have a lot of pressure on him. That guy is probably too unpredictable, or too ungovernable. Makes sense to me.And that comes from being the ungovernable one.
FWIW, I moved out on my own at age 19 and never looked back.
For example....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.