Men are dropping out of the labor force because upset about their social status • Hacker News Board

Re: Men are dropping out of the labor force because upset about their social status

#21

Post by eesmith » Sun, Jun 25, 2023, 6:39 AM UTC

sacnoradhq wrote: post #19

Too many idle people is never a Good Thing(tm). It breeds insurrections, conspiracy theories, and the kind that go postal against random people.

I don't think Great Depression - a time when there were a lot of idle people - was particularly notable in terms of insurrections, conspiracy theories, or going postal.

As a baseline, consider the bombings from the 1910s (The 1910 Los Angeles Times bombing up to the Wall Street bombing in 1920.). I can't think of anything comparable during the 1930s and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_terrorist_attacks_... lists nothing.

Work is only one way of not being idle. If it were, we would expect retired people to be insurrectionists, conspiracy theorists, and instigators of random attacks.

Students and stay-at-home parents also busy, while not being idle, nor being included in this definition of "labor force".

Re: Men are dropping out of the labor force because upset about their social status

#22

Post by hrbrmstr » Sun, Jun 25, 2023, 11:09 AM UTC

I realize the study was unable to or just did not perform “follow-ups” with the individuals they are positing “no longer work”. But, what exactly are these malcontents doing instead, then?

Living with parents? (Why would a parent enable this juvenile behavior)?

Relying on their spouse's income to survive (and, if so, is there any real harm/issue with this)?

Going “off the books” and just being part of the underground economy (in which case, this 'not working' posit is partly a falsehood).

Even woefully entitled dudes have to eat, no?

Re: Men are dropping out of the labor force because upset about their social status

#23

Post by hotpotamus » Sun, Jun 25, 2023, 12:23 PM UTC

hrbrmstr wrote: post #22

I realize the study was unable to or just did not perform “follow-ups” with the individuals they are positing “no longer work”. But, what exactly are these malcontents doing instead, then? Living with parents? (Why would a parent enable this juvenile behavior)? Relying on their spouse's income to survive (and, if so, is there any real harm/issue with this)? Going “off the books” and just being part of the underground…

I don't think one's level of entitlement changes whether or not they need to eat. I have to say that if the guillotines ever do come out in the US, it will be amusing to watch the billionaires trying to explain to those operating the scaffolds how entitled they are and don't they know that their income has actually increased 6% in the last few decades accounting for inflation? And how grateful they should be for all the wealth the oligarchs hold?

Frankly, the wealthy should be glad the poor are just tuning out.