Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's not forget that the Social Security is not getting funded so it's probably going to dry out sooner.
Just take the income cap off contributions. What's it at, $110-$150k?
$142,000 currently.
Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home
941–950 of 1001 posts
Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home
#942Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also can't compete with Blackrock and other professionally managed funds buying up swaths of homes tens of thousands of dollars over asking price because they want to rent them out later.
let's fund our own town!
It's beyond my technical ability, but I always wished I was able to create an app where contractors could sign up to build a town "at cost" with everyone contributing their specialty. Each finished town would have an electrician/HVAC/etc for repairs or to other business with.
Maybe that would be something to pivot towards. Start with volunteer work. "Let's clean up the beach 6/10". People could earn karma/upvotes from the others who also contributed that's worthless like here, or to spend on stuff donated.
And I'd call it 4us.
Some day it will happen. :)
Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home
#943Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's the chicken egg problem. Woman birthed man. Who's to blame? In all seriousness, if we are to succeed as a society, then ignorantly maintaining what are mostly over generalizations and stereotypes related to gender is a failing proposition. And that involves anything that existed pre-the-whole-world-is-now-connected. That means > It's not a binary decision, people. We don't need to decide which gender/sex is "bet…
That and similar feelings explains the increase in massacres, hatred, ... Violence has been falling substantially in the US: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/20/facts-about...
The time series in your link end in 2019, when the trend of falling violence has ended. There has been a huge, unprecedented spike in violence in 2020, and this new normal has wiped decade or two of previous gains.
Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home
#944Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How long does it take to learn how to drive You're not wrong generally, but this one costs about $1000 where I live, which is close to average national monthly salary and approximately twice the minimum salary. Not pocket change for someone who has trouble finding work (and many jobs require driver's license).
Just to add to the story. My sister claimed for 10+ years she had the DMV book and just needed to study it before getting her permit. She said this repeatedly to my father and brother and no one questioned her. For 10+ years. Then a year ago I just called a driving school near my parents house on her behalf. I offered to pay for everything including study time and taxi rides to and from the school. Whatever it took.…
Yeah I agree with the poster that said she is scared of driving. I'm guessing the excuse that she needed to read the book was either her using an excuse to self deceptively avoid facing her fear or just an attempt to save face by not saying how fearful she was.
Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home
#945Men are not doing as well as women in school. If you look in the wrong places on the internet, media, or daily life, all you see is negativity towards masculinity. In addition, there doesn't appear to be any broad social system that is geared towards supporting men. The fact that men don't tend to be a socially adept doesn't help. This all feels like the perfect storm and there are plenty of people who act like "men…
At a recent scholarship awards ceremony I attended the woman gathered much more scholarships than the men. Of course they probably very well deserved it. However there were many women-only scholarships that I am assuming were setup to increase college admissions of women. Which is of course also perfectly okay. However, there is a huge growing gender gap [1] in college admissions that favors women. If an equality pro…
The gender gap in education is observed all around the world, including in virtually all countries in Europe where university is free or subsidised to the point of being free-ish and there's no real scholarship culture to speak of.
Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home
#946Earlier quoted context omitted.
And spending your life working to make other execs rich isn’t a waste of oxygen?
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that. Like I said, there are plenty of fulfilling non-commercial NEET-friendly outlets. I just see the game/tv spiral as almost uniquely destructive of self-esteem.
No apology necessary :)
And now after reading more of the comments, I think there are two aspects to the situation. The first is doing nothing but playing video games all day, and the second is freeloading off of others to enable this lifestyle.
I don’t think we should judge the first as a flaw of character, but definitely the second IMO is deplorable.
I think the “productive member of society” trope needs to die. Many jobs across all pay levels serve purposes that are bad for humanity and the individual, and more power to those who’d rather opt out of all of that, as long as they’re sustaining themselves.
Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home
#947What are the things that motivates them, and what do they themselves want to do in life? I ask this because much of the undertone in the article and in this thread is about the failure of meeting the gender role expectations that are put on young men. Do they have a job and a car? Have they studied hard so they can get a good job in order to support a wife and kid? Culture in the last several decades have hammered do…
I don't think a lot of people know what motivates them or what they want to do in life. If you could play video games all day and have fun or force yourself to study or work at a hard job all day, what would you choose? Wouldn't most people prefer the easier and fun option? Do you have a solution to this? (I've been thinking about it for a while and I don't know)
In part the solution I would point to is the same that is often said by parents in how one get well adapted children. Provide social support and introduce hobbies. They are not a silver bullet for everyone, but it catches a significant larger portion than stereotypical gender roles.
We can also draw inspiration from the cultural change that we have seen for women. How often do you see in movie a person say to a woman "Are you happy? Is this really what you want...". Lifting personal motivation as an actually question is a early good step towards making people think about it.
There seems to also be a possible error in how people perceive the problem. In the absent of video games you would not suddenly get motivation. Even if you would throw them out on the street with no money, food or shelter, the result would not be a sudden aspiration to become what society expect men to be.
Finding what motivate oneself can either be done through the help by others, or alone. It not as much of a question about what is easier as all hobbies are more work than no hobby at all.
Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home
#948Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree 100% on the dramatic economic problems we are facing. But I also can't help but feel commenters are conflating 'attack on masculinity' !== 'attack on toxic masculinity.' There is not some organized movement trying to make young boys 'less of a man.' I'm guessing a very large % of HN is male so would be nice to amplify any female voices who want to chime in.
There is non stop end to end societal cheerleading of everyone who is not a white man, with the implications being that white men are bad.
What a strange implication to make.
Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home
#949I wonder how much of these developments remain when correcting for factors we don't necessarily deem to be an issue.
For example, between 1960 and today life expectancy in the US grew by 10 years.
If we look at educational attainment, we also see massive positive changes. [0] From 60% completing less than high school in 1960, to 9% today, and those with degrees grew from 4% to 37%.
If we live longer and educate ourselves for longer, it makes sense to delay certain behaviours and milestones in life, such as moving out of your parents' home, marrying, having kids, getting a job.
This would typically not be something to be very concerned about, rather it would typically be something public policy would aspire to achieve.
However, suppose you plot these milestones and behaviours on an age-timeline (from 0 to 100 for example) and the behaviours and milestones all shift 3 years to the right for the abovementioned reasons (5 years more education, 10 years of higher higher life expectancy). If you're a journalist who then selects a range on this age-timeline (e.g. 20 to 30), you'll obviously find that a smaller share of the people in this narrow range will have met those milestones. Taken out of context, it's worrying. Within context, it might be entirely natural.
Of course there are genuine, objective problems as well that I'm not denying. But the issues might be overstated, as well. I'd like to see a more nuanced, more accurate view, correcting for certain factors instead of just selling a one-sided warning piece. If I look at my own generation I feel in many ways much more empowered and independent compared to what my parents (anecdotally), yet I did live at home slightly longer than my mother for example. However I had a better education, started a company at a young age, travelled to four continents by myself as a teenager with my own funds. My mom moved out earlier than I did with financial support from her parents, and married sooner. But she was not as free or independent.
[0] https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/visualizat...
Re: Fewer young men are in the labor force, more are living at home
#950Men are not doing as well as women in school. If you look in the wrong places on the internet, media, or daily life, all you see is negativity towards masculinity. In addition, there doesn't appear to be any broad social system that is geared towards supporting men. The fact that men don't tend to be a socially adept doesn't help. This all feels like the perfect storm and there are plenty of people who act like "men…
Men do 90% of everything. Start world wars, end world wars, save people’s lives, murder people, invent lifesaving technologies, invent murderous technologies. Women seem to want a world where they are 50% of the CEOs but not 50% of the prisoners and that’s not how “maleness” works.