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Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

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Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#351

Post by ajeet_dhaliwal »

I don't think this is an increasing phenomena due to games getting 'better' as much as due to the economic climate. Even children do it, I did. It can be a good thing and a bad thing. The reason I am a hacker and earn a living as a 'professional software engineer' today, have worked in the games industry and now also at a startup is all because of the interest in games and software generated during my childhood playing video games in order to get escapism from the bullies. Games seemed a thing of beauty the way there were balanced. Even if the protagonist is getting attacked by one hundred enemies the programmer will provide some ability to fight back.

Games are pleasurable because the 'hard work' you put in pays off. Life is not always like that, it's only sometimes like that, and for some people it doesn't seem to matter how hard they work, there's a lot of hopeless places to live in the world. People don't want to live in the USA and other places because they want easy access to Disney Land, they just want to play a fairer game. Now the fact that this is happening in the US, indicates that the economic situation is not as good as it once was for some people. If it improves people would come out of the games because there would be opportunity outside in the real world and anyone would pick the real world rather than games in that case because games are created by people and are rather limited and dull imitations of our real world, our real world is infinitely more interesting and complex.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#352

Post by corin_ »

mozumder wrote: post #297
researcher11 wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a $20K passive income of and living expenses of $10K. My hobbies are really cheap and centered around building skills. Programming / construction / sports. I do miss my friends in SF though. That's the biggest downside. I've been trying to encourage more to come down.

That still seems expensive. You can get by with that much in rural areas of the US or Detroit.

He's choosing to retire, so why not live beyond "getting by" if he can afford it and is happy to live where he can afford it?

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#353

Post by mjevans »

petre wrote: post #295
politician wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those sorts of wars are largely in America's past. The real money is made in high-tech munitions: cruise missiles, anti-missile missiles, and drones with missiles. If you're a defense contractor, you're not interested in selling "hundreds of thousands of boots on the ground," but rather guns (weapons systems) and ammo. As a corollary, no one is lobbying politicians on behalf of a force increase at the scale you're su…

What I was saying was give the hoards of men games to play: piloting drones, UUVs, playing Red Alert with robotic infantry, mostly against a weaker economy, the real victims . And let's not forget the amount of jobs created to build those drones.

I find your lack of imagination disturbing. There are more types of games out there, others can be based around finding the best designs, or alternate fulfillment for a standard interface if materials are short.

We have entire video-games, and mods for games, that revolve around setting up factories and designs.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#354

Post by mattmanser »

jondubois wrote: post #348
pabloski wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I felt the game is rigged", you nailed it in this simple phrase. In fact http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-16/new-york-assemblyma... They ( the oligarchs through their politicians ) change the rules every day, but they say to us that the system is fair. Obviously it is lapalissian that the system isn't fair at all but it is massively rigged. In the past centuries people would have revolted, now they imprison the…

Yeah, you don't see them in the streets, they're "out of sight, out of mind". Even if they understood what happened to them, they wouldn't have the confidence to do anything about it. The brilliance of this terrible system is that it makes the victims accept the full the responsibility of their failed lives upon themselves. It's natural selection. People who need to feel short term rewards in their lives will be wipe…

The Occupy protests around the world? Arab spring? 2011 UK riots? Black lives matter?

There's a definite undercurrent that politicians are barely keeping a lid on, the latest manifestations being Brexit and Trump.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#355

Post by beaconstudios »

mattmanser wrote: post #354
jondubois wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, you don't see them in the streets, they're "out of sight, out of mind". Even if they understood what happened to them, they wouldn't have the confidence to do anything about it. The brilliance of this terrible system is that it makes the victims accept the full the responsibility of their failed lives upon themselves. It's natural selection. People who need to feel short term rewards in their lives will be wipe…

The Occupy protests around the world? Arab spring? 2011 UK riots? Black lives matter? There's a definite undercurrent that politicians are barely keeping a lid on, the latest manifestations being Brexit and Trump.

the only way they keep the ongoing strife from really effecting the political system is by keeping the left and right wings fighting each other over often minor disagreements.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#357

Post by nul_byte »

pabloski wrote: post #345
laughfactory wrote: post #150

It's not just video games either. Add Netflix and social media, and soon, VR, to the equation, and it's pretty clear that the game of life offers insufficient rewards relative to one's efforts. I don't believe we ended up here due to some grand conspiracy, but I do think that the top 1% have gotten so skilled at trapping wealth and therefore opportunity that it's really screwing over everyone else. Even as a relative…

"I felt the game is rigged", you nailed it in this simple phrase. In fact http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-16/new-york-assemblyma... They ( the oligarchs through their politicians ) change the rules every day, but they say to us that the system is fair. Obviously it is lapalissian that the system isn't fair at all but it is massively rigged. In the past centuries people would have revolted, now they imprison the…

Pushed enough they will crack, but our new masters know this, so they keep us as teetering on the edge as possible. I like Mark Blyths comment on the matter... The Hamptons, Long Islands is low lying and provides very little defence when the angry masses come for your blood.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#358

Post by anjc »

Eh. Young men are "dropping out of the job market" due to a lack of ability to be accepted into it regardless of education or ability. And they're spending time doing lots more things than gaming, which you can see from rates of drug addiction and depression and suicide and so on.

Saying that they're dropping out of the job market to spend time gaming is bizarre and wrong. At various points in the article it hits vaguely onto the actual truth of the matter.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#359

Post by meheleventyone »

otisfunkmeyer wrote: post #315
greenhatman wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no guarantee for anything. That is not a reason not to try. There is literally nothing better to do with your life than try. So just try.

this comment is what a lifetime of philosophical thought, traveling, psychedelics, meditation, and experimentation has led me to as well. "there is literally nothing better to do with your life than try. so just try."

The issue though is that a lot of the people mentioned in the original article don't think trying is worthwhile. So advice to "just try" is always going to fall short.

As advice it also ignores the structural issues that make trying easier and harder for various people. One way of encouraging people to try is to break down the real barriers that exists and make it harder for them than others.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#360

Post by Asooka »

anjc wrote: post #358

Eh. Young men are "dropping out of the job market" due to a lack of ability to be accepted into it regardless of education or ability. And they're spending time doing lots more things than gaming, which you can see from rates of drug addiction and depression and suicide and so on. Saying that they're dropping out of the job market to spend time gaming is bizarre and wrong. At various points in the article it hits vag…

Yeah but "young men find out the job market is shit and turn to various other vendors of dopamine" just doesn't have the same ring. It's those gosh darned rock and roll video games ya know.
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