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Men Are 'On Strike' Throughout The U.S.: What Are The Causes? (More John Galt than Peter Pan?)
Forbes ^ | January 8, 2014 | Jerry Bowyer

Posted on 01/12/2014 6:48:42 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

I haven’t seen my copy of Men On Strike for several weeks. I kept careful watch on the book until I finished interviewing her, but after that it disappeared into the Bowyer-Family-Book-Sharing Vortex from which it has not yet emerged. That’s because it is an easy read about a topic which is interesting in both a social science theory way, and in a figuring out how to get by in the current world kind of way.

Men on Strike is pretty much what the title says it is, a book about how many men have decided not to participate in certain areas of life, most notably in school, family, and increasingly in work. What separates the work of Helen Smith, a psychologist who deals with men like the ones she writes about in her book, is the lack of scoldiness that you might find in the similar work of say Kay Hymowitz’ Manning Up. For Smith, the men are in large part acting rationally. They’re more John Galt than they are Peter Pan. The book could as well have been titled Andros Shrugged, if ancient Greek titles sold books.

---snip---

“Boys and young men are no less rational, or capable of adapting to incentives, than girls and young women are. They are, in fact, adapting very well to the incentives for female power and independence–which inevitably also serve as disincentives to male reliability and self-sacrifice.”(continued)

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: books; economy; feminism; genderwars; males; manhood; menonstrike; trends
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To: Dan(9698)

I went Galt about 20 years ago....realized that my working only meant it cost more for us to live....helped my husband make a better living, and made our life easier....plus...didn’t pay anymore into SocSec, Medicare, etc...after having worked about 20 years already!


21 posted on 01/12/2014 7:14:35 PM PST by goodnesswins (R.I.P. Doherty, Smith, Stevens, Woods.)
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To: max americana

Send them this article:

I’m Fat, Forty And Single And I’m Having No Problems Getting Laid All The Time
http://www.xojane.com/sex/hi-there-im-fat-forty-single-and-slutty?utm_medium=facebook

LOL


22 posted on 01/12/2014 7:14:46 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (Jealousy is when you count someone else's blessings instead of your own.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I don’t think I’d call them “men”.

It might be more difficult now to lead women and children, and to meet one’s other responsibilities, but a man finds a way to do his duty even when it’s tough.

Boys don’t.


23 posted on 01/12/2014 7:16:56 PM PST by LearsFool ("Thou shouldst not have been old, till thou hadst been wise.")
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To: Tijeras_Slim
I’m old school also.

We were married in 1962.

We raised 7 kids and have 32 grand kids and a few Great Grand KIds.

I like how our kids are raising them.

They (kids, grand kids and great grand kids) are a delight.

24 posted on 01/12/2014 7:18:08 PM PST by Dan(9698)
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To: Secret Agent Man

Who the f()ck is John Galt, is what I say?

So friggin sick of the idiot males in commercials et al.


25 posted on 01/12/2014 7:18:17 PM PST by bicyclerepair (TERM LIMITS TERM LIMITS TERM LIMITS)
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To: Dan(9698)

Thanks

Knowing families like yours are out there makes me smile.


26 posted on 01/12/2014 7:20:03 PM PST by Tijeras_Slim
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To: Tijeras_Slim
Old school, but what the heck.

Ah, you read cursive. :p

27 posted on 01/12/2014 7:21:17 PM PST by Irenic (The pencil sharpener and Elmer's glue is put away-- we've lost the red wheel barrow)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

i think that was one of my former bosses XD


28 posted on 01/12/2014 7:21:48 PM PST by max americana (fired liberals in our company last election, and I laughed while they cried (true story))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Taken to the extreme of role reversal, it used to be that a woman who had lost her virginity before marriage was seen as undesirable.

Today, however, male desirability is based on being not just debt free, but having a good job, material wealth, and the willingness to sacrifice it all to a wife and children. His reward being to be seen as conforming to social standards that offer him little else.

Legally, his wife controls their marriage, and if she decides to end it, she gets what he has, and he is obligated to support her and any children they produced, even if he is not left enough to survive.

If he chooses the bath of bachelorhood, he will be bitterly attacked, but he will retain his autonomy and wealth, will be able to live in comfort instead of poverty, and he will be free of the demands put on a married man.

He may even see this as the honorable course. That unless he can support a family, he shouldn’t start one, because that wouldn’t be fair to them.


29 posted on 01/12/2014 7:24:52 PM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy (There Is Still A Very Hot War On Terror, Just Not On The MSM. Rantburg.com)
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To: BenLurkin
this male whinning is just a little inside look at what has become of men....

whinning...can't cut it....can't cut doing well at school or won't bother....not playing sports and certainly not doing competitive sports because somebody might get hurt...

for all the problems that we attribute to American black men, one of them is NOT sitting on the sidelines and letting others do....you think they care that you might possibly get a concussion from football?...no they don't.....its just part of the risk....

and at least they're making babies...sure....not into secure nice families but they're making babies...

our American white boys don't compete and they don't make babies.....

they complain about women and then they'll complain that the latinos are taking "their" jobs...right....

the major problem of maleness in our country and probably the world is the Playboy philosophy and its resulting belittling of women, of families, of children, or God and church, and any responsibility...

afterall, isn't the playboy Philosophy that a guy should be able to have as much sexual stimulation as he wants, without reguard to females or morals or Godliness?.....

the homos have used this little ploy to get what they get....

in short, men, its in your court....its always been in your court....you can't blame others if they seize what you refuse to seize......achievement, leadership, responsibility....I think until you turn off the porn channels and thinking less about self gratification you're going to be lost, as will be your sons....

30 posted on 01/12/2014 7:25:46 PM PST by cherry (.in the time of universal deceit, telling the truth is revolutionary.....)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

There are two factors at work here:

1 - Uncle Sam provides for single women with children what men used to provide.

2 - No matter how “perfect” a partner a man is, he’s not appreciated by either his partner or society at large. When you can’t win, why even bother playing the game?


31 posted on 01/12/2014 7:26:24 PM PST by randita
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It looks like the introduction to what may be an interesting article. But when he starts to get to the meat did the subject, it says, “To be continued”.


32 posted on 01/12/2014 7:27:53 PM PST by gitmo (If your theology doesn't become your biography, what good is it?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

No surprise. You virtually never even really see depictions of solid, old-style masculinity in the culture anymore. Just over-emoting and self-absorbed man-children.

Yet another indication of the impending collapse. A twisted culture that celebrates dope and homosex. Wastrels and deviants. Western civilization committing suicide.


33 posted on 01/12/2014 7:28:48 PM PST by greene66
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To: lightman
The wussification of Amerika continues....

Not necessarily .. there's no telling what some of these men are doing now that they have all this free time. ;)

34 posted on 01/12/2014 7:31:35 PM PST by The Duke ("Forgiveness is between them and God, it's my job to arrange the meeting.")
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To: bicyclerepair

not sure what you’re trying to say in sentence 1. sentence two, i agree, there are no real men in commercials anymore. obviously they aren’t trying to get me to buy their unnecessary crap.


35 posted on 01/12/2014 7:32:27 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Helen Smith describes very well what is going on with men. My son is 33 has basically become a workaholic playaholic. Doesn’t date has no plan for a family. Works all day at a job he can bring his dog along and plays video’s at night. When he has time off he’ll come home and spoil his nephews and nieces till he gets tired then goes back to work in a few weeks. He has a real well trained dog


36 posted on 01/12/2014 7:47:13 PM PST by the_daug
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To: RKBA Democrat

“I find all the hubbub over homosexual state marriage to be a bit surreal: the real issue that will affect society in the future is that heterosexual men are abandoning it in droves.”

Most importantly, as a direct result of that, “society in the future” is going to look very different than it does today. Even today, it is unrecognizable from 20 years ago. The libs are winning battles on the fronts of destroying the family and drug legalization, but they are losing the demographic war that is increasingly turning this country into a hodgepodge of foreigners that aren’t “progressive” at all.


37 posted on 01/12/2014 7:47:16 PM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic war against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

“Legally, his wife controls their marriage, and if she decides to end it, she gets what he has, and he is obligated to support her and any children they produced, even if he is not left enough to survive.”

To me this seems to be the biggest reason for the end of marriage/families; the young people today are often from the broken homes of yesterday, and the males see nothing enviable about the positions the men in their life were in twenty or thirty years ago.

“If he chooses the bath of bachelorhood, he will be bitterly attacked, but he will retain his autonomy and wealth, will be able to live in comfort instead of poverty, and he will be free of the demands put on a married man.”

He will see benefits from that lifestyle, and the bloodline ends while he subsidizes many other people’s children. Marriage/children aren’t for everyone, but it has to be for SOMEONE.


38 posted on 01/12/2014 7:52:22 PM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic war against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: max americana

I must have worked at the east coast divisions of the places you did. For however long it lasts, I work in a good place with a couple of good bosses making pretty well.


39 posted on 01/12/2014 7:57:42 PM PST by wally_bert (There are no winners in a game of losers. I'm Tommy Joyce, welcome to the Oriental Lounge.)
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To: kearnyirish2

“The libs are winning battles on the fronts of destroying the family and drug legalization, but they are losing the demographic war that is increasingly turning this country into a hodgepodge of foreigners that aren’t “progressive” at all.”

The leftists will turn it into a “progressive” society, only to hand it over to the muzzies shortly thereafter.


40 posted on 01/12/2014 7:58:46 PM PST by RKBA Democrat (Having some small say in who gets to hold the whip doesn't make you any less a slave.)
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