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Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home

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Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home

#21

Post by marcellus23 »

kogepathic wrote: post #17
andrewmcwatters wrote: post #7

I see this on the fringes of those within my circle of friends. I know one man in this age cohort who doesn't seem to have a job, just plays video games all the time, and I don't get it. But one thing I think about is what he has been exposed to: this is what he knows. I don't think this individual I'm speaking of was raised with anything differently. In this same light, as I believe the two concepts are directly rel…

> another friend of mine basically refuses to date anymore because he thinks the sort of culture of Tinder dating is a waste of time that favors women disproportionately. My female friends (I'm male) with online dating profiles have shown me their matches and conversations, and it's bleak. They all mostly have an average profile and still receive thousands of likes/hearts/swipes and messages, but the mean amount of e…

It's certainly believable that women don't enjoy dating apps, but I think it's difficult to make the case that it's equally hard for them (in terms of successfully getting a date) when they have thousands of matches and many men I know have none.

Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home

#22

Post by futureshock »

This seems like a kind rational economic choice. If there are not enough good jobs that can support independent living, providing for a spouse, buying a home or raising a family, then staying home with the easy accomplishment of video games makes sense. Most people never live outside their home states and can't afford to leave the support network of their family and close friends. If you grew up in a medium or high cost of living area, then you're sort of stuck. I work in tech and still, owning a home seems pretty distant, so I can't imagine how it must be for someone without job skills.

Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home

#23

Post by speeder »

I lived with my parents on and off until I was 31, that was when I managed to marry and move out hopefully permanently this time.

It is Anedacta... but I think I know what is going on.

1. The labor market is a mess, for example today I got another rejection letter from a job I sent my resume, thing is, I am literally perfect for the job, my resume (that I didn't tailor for it) matched perfectly what they asked, even the "additional" things, including the fact they wanted someone that made Hidden Object games before (I had a whole company to make those with millions of downloads).

I have a strong impression hiring is just screwed, people often don't even read resumes, for example I had a company invite me to do a job I don't know how to do, only for the interviewer of the company realize they are wasting time (a company asked me to do ML work, I never listed ML anywhere in my resume).

Also I am 33 now, and never had a job registered legally in my country, I only had contracts and "contracts".

Also here having internship is mandatory to graduate, a lot of my friends failed to graduate beause they didn't found any internship even for free, to graduate myself I actually created a company and hired myself (it is legal to do that O.o).

Now relationshipwise: I looked for relationships very hard, and kept finding only people wnating flings, including one person that scammed me (she claimed she would marry me and whatnot to convince me to have sex with her, since I wanted to marry virgin, after she got bored with me she declared that all she wanted was my body and kicked me out).

Only reason I managed to marry at all, is that I went to a church, found a childhood friend there that also wanted to marry and was having similar issues, and I asked her right off the bat if she wanted to marry me then, and she said yes. (we are very happy, for those wondering...)

If it wasn't for a lucky coincincidence (in case you don't believe in God or something... I only went to that church because my car broke that day when I was going elsewhere and going that church was in the situation at the time the logical option) I probably would still be alone.

Same thing applies to a lot of my friends, many, many of them are single, and jobless, after a while some of them just give up on living properly and settle for videogames... videogames are not the culprit, they are the escape, they are a solution to have a life, even if virtual, after your real life becomes seemly impossible to live.

EDIT: by the way, student debt doesn't help, for example I did got "legal" job offers, but to earn mininum wage (for example supermarket cashier), thing is, my student debt monthly payments was roughly twice the mininum wage, so accepting a mininum wage legal job would put me in further debt. Thankfully my Startup Kidoteca was a reasonable success and I paid my debts with it.

Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home

#24

Post by andrewmcwatters »

kogepathic wrote: post #17
andrewmcwatters wrote: post #7

I see this on the fringes of those within my circle of friends. I know one man in this age cohort who doesn't seem to have a job, just plays video games all the time, and I don't get it. But one thing I think about is what he has been exposed to: this is what he knows. I don't think this individual I'm speaking of was raised with anything differently. In this same light, as I believe the two concepts are directly rel…

> another friend of mine basically refuses to date anymore because he thinks the sort of culture of Tinder dating is a waste of time that favors women disproportionately. My female friends (I'm male) with online dating profiles have shown me their matches and conversations, and it's bleak. They all mostly have an average profile and still receive thousands of likes/hearts/swipes and messages, but the mean amount of e…

What does effort mean in this context? I recall friends of mine, young women, who were having the hardest time finding a significant other were just demanding things of men that would have them selecting from a socioeconomic pool of the top 20% of the population, when they themselves were in the bottom 20%.

It was my experience that young women in general were asking for too much when I was in my early 20s. They wanted someone who had it "all together," and that's just not where most people are in their early 20s. There doesn't seem to be any appreciation anymore for the fact that young couples grow up together. Instead, people seem to think that you grow up first and establish who you are independently, then find someone else to bring into your life. But realistically, you don't finish growing before dating, and in life who you become is based on the interactions not just with your significant other, but your friends and family, too.

Lastly, all of my dating experiences online lead me to women who wanted to be "entertained." And not in the sort of "wined and dined" sense which seems obvious to me, but rather most women I came across didn't want to get to know men, they just wanted entertainment value out of the experience of dating. This was a sharp contrast from interactions with young women in real life. The dating world for both young men and women online seems to create some strange scenarios that don't play out well for anyone involved. I see this manifest the most in online dating where most men are naturally led to play pickup artist lines. I personally find it extremely off-putting. I'm not a jester.

Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home

#25

Post by protonimitate »

cheph wrote: post #11
dijit wrote: post #2

If the goal is gender equality: what's wrong with this? The idea that every able bodied person has to work is not supposed to be the way our society functions; at least not in the last 100,000 years.

> The idea that every able bodied person has to work is not supposed to be the way our society functions; at least not in the last 100,000 years. So the fruit of who's labour exactly are they entitled to then? And can I also get in on that action? I would like to get something other people made without working any more. I don't see why I as a productive member of society should get less than someone who festers in th…

FTA: > Make no mistake, though, for a young man who’s not working the couch isn’t a bed of roses. “About half of prime age men who are not in the labor force may have a serious health condition that is a barrier to working,” the late Princeton economist Alan Krueger wrote in the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity in 2017.

Does it really sound that appealing to be "entitled" to pain, high medication costs, and/or a potentially crippling drug abuse problem?

Go ahead and fester away, bud.

Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home

#26

Post by thaumasiotes »

LatteLazy wrote: post #8
dijit wrote: post #2

If the goal is gender equality: what's wrong with this? The idea that every able bodied person has to work is not supposed to be the way our society functions; at least not in the last 100,000 years.

Unless you were born into the ranks of a few kings or priests, this is the first time men have been allowed to opt out.

It's also the first time women have been allowed to opt out. Working most of the day is the historical norm for all able-bodied people and most not-wholly-able-bodied people.

Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home

#27

Post by [deleted] »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #9
dijit wrote: post #2

If the goal is gender equality: what's wrong with this? The idea that every able bodied person has to work is not supposed to be the way our society functions; at least not in the last 100,000 years.

These men are not being supported by their wives, they just don't go and form a new family. Women in that age range are generally more educated than their male counterparts and they earn more, so this statistic makes sense. They also have trouble finding a male partner, especially because one of their requirements is that they should earn more than them. This sounds like an impending demographics / societal disaster.…

[deleted]

Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home

#28

Post by wayoutthere »

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #7

I see this on the fringes of those within my circle of friends. I know one man in this age cohort who doesn't seem to have a job, just plays video games all the time, and I don't get it. But one thing I think about is what he has been exposed to: this is what he knows. I don't think this individual I'm speaking of was raised with anything differently. In this same light, as I believe the two concepts are directly rel…

> another friend of mine basically refuses to date anymore because he thinks the sort of culture of Tinder dating is a waste of time that favors women disproportionately.

Tinder is a waste of time for women too; if you’re at all attractive you get dozens of messages a day and half of them are scams. The best I’ve ever gotten out of Tinder has been mediocre, meaningless sex; it’s far too much work if you’re looking for anything more.

You have to go do things you enjoy and be a more interesting person. If that’s just your daily life, you’ll meet people who enjoy the same things you do and you can potentially date them (or their friends).

But yeah, I agree with you. Just because Tinder sucks doesn’t mean you shouldn’t date; just that you shouldn’t look to an app to find a partner.

Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home

#29

Post by newaccount2021 »

There's no need to over-analyze this - we're talking about a generation of useless oafs. Days spent playing video games or other couch-bound non-activities, eating trash food, shitposting on the internet. I wish there was some way we could exile them to an island.

Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home

#30

Post by tonyedgecombe »

cheph wrote: post #11
dijit wrote: post #2

If the goal is gender equality: what's wrong with this? The idea that every able bodied person has to work is not supposed to be the way our society functions; at least not in the last 100,000 years.

> The idea that every able bodied person has to work is not supposed to be the way our society functions; at least not in the last 100,000 years. So the fruit of who's labour exactly are they entitled to then? And can I also get in on that action? I would like to get something other people made without working any more. I don't see why I as a productive member of society should get less than someone who festers in th…

We have never paid people based on the amount of effort they put in.
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