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The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

nytimes.com

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Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#101

Post by marktangotango »

marktangotango wrote: post #64
mamurphy wrote: post #27

I am mesmerized by the age 40 bar. It barely moves; a few more people are retired or are in school. My armchair speculation is that turning 40 really makes people reexamine their decisions.

At 40+ you realize you've pretty much accomplished everything you're going to with your life. All those plans and ambitions? You've had 40 years to act, if you haven't done something yet, chances are you're not going to. Its all down hill from there. Hopefully you've got a family you can put you're energy into. At least this was how i felt 40+, ymmv.

Thanks for the down votes, guess it's wasn't obvious enough I posted my personal experience, was the ymmv (your mileage may vary) at the end not enough?

Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#102

Post by [deleted] »

tluyben2 wrote: post #23
MCRed wrote: post #2

Look ma, that's me! Free of a soul crushing corporate job, back to doing a "startup", I may not have the cash rolling in, but at least I'm in control of my destiny. Hey Ma, I'm moving in! I think there are a lot of people out there like me. I have some money coming from side projects, several opportunities to grow that, and several opportunities for new side projects. And quite a long personal runway before I have to…

I have never had 'a job' and had startups (and later mature companies) since I was 15 (I am 40 now). I am not sure what age you are, but you need to know this thing for sure if you are past, I think, around 30 as running a life like this can be very painful. There simply is a tiny chance of 'big success' while most just live in almost poverty the first 20-30 years of doing this. That's also why I think you are probab…

[deleted]

Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#103

Post by acveilleux »

ceallen wrote: post #99
bluedino wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The disability rate of 20-30 year olds really jumped in the last few years.

Possible result of Iraq/Afghanistan wars? The army's reported 1 million injured, but I'm not sure how many of them transitioned to disability. Would disabled veterans be reflected in these numbers?

If they are discharged, yes.

Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#104

Post by emodendroket »

I occasionally see the rise of the single-breadwinner family where a woman has a job celebrated as forward progress for gender equality or something, but that's misguided. Frankly, a lot of men are just unable to work and then their families are forced to subsist on the woman's job, which still pays, on average, less. Newspapers talk a lot about high-powered female executives with stay-at-home husbands and so on, but that's a small sliver, not somehow representative of the trend.

Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#105

Post by cryoshon »

ceallen wrote: post #99
bluedino wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The disability rate of 20-30 year olds really jumped in the last few years.

Possible result of Iraq/Afghanistan wars? The army's reported 1 million injured, but I'm not sure how many of them transitioned to disability. Would disabled veterans be reflected in these numbers?

One entire million injured? Something must be off there, otherwise the injury rate would be ludicrously high relative to the small number of troops we had in the wars.

Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#106

Post by emodendroket »

MCRed wrote: post #2

Look ma, that's me! Free of a soul crushing corporate job, back to doing a "startup", I may not have the cash rolling in, but at least I'm in control of my destiny. Hey Ma, I'm moving in! I think there are a lot of people out there like me. I have some money coming from side projects, several opportunities to grow that, and several opportunities for new side projects. And quite a long personal runway before I have to…

I don't think the majority of the long-term unemployed are unemployed because they're working on tech startups.

Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#107

Post by emodendroket »

shutupalready wrote: post #22
rtpg wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, a big problem with the whole "Don't need BigCo's job cuz I'm running a SV startup!" narrative is that it's really only accessible for people who already belonged to pretty privileged classes (exceptions exist, obviously.) A portion of the population does not get opportunities to develop these skills and were once allowed low-skilled jobs that paid "decently" but have now found themselves squeezed due to inflati…

> companies hoarding cash instead of spending it I've heard this sentiment many times but I've wondered if there's an economic fallacy there. Would the economy be better off if lots of companies stopped hoarding cash and hired lots of new employees? Or would there be side-effects like inflation, or some effect of pulling out cash from whatever it was invested in, etc.? Serious question.

The whole foundation of capitalism is growth so if we're embracing zero-growth we have to radically change things. (in short, yes, companies hiring and spending is an unalloyed good on the macroeconomic level)

Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#109

Post by ctdonath »

bruceb wrote: post #5

There are books on this phenomenon. Part of what they say is now men have access to their basic needs with out needing to work as much. Entertainment is abundant and relatively cheap and sex isn't tied to marriage. You can lounge around and be if not exactly satisfied, at least not terrible wanting for stuff. Of course these guys are screwed when it comes to retirement.

Shortly before meeting m'lady, I'd nearly paid off the house and otherwise driven my expenses to near zero. The prospect of withdrawing from the system ("going Galt") was becoming a realistic option; grow much/most of my food (as my folks had growing up), find a mundane job in walking/biking distance (notable as I lived in the country), and spend my time writing what software I wanted and puttering in a back-to-basics life. We live in a culture of cheap abundance, and if un-hitched and rent/mortgage-free then very little work effort is needed to get by in a comfortable, if humble, lifestyle. (Then I met m'lady, and life got very expensive very fast.)

Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#110

Post by emodendroket »

drcomputer wrote: post #66
jahnu wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very little down side. People with more income spend more which grows the economy. In a two person economy, your expenditure is my income and my expenditure is your income. If one of us hoards then both of us lose eventually. Also moderate inflation is a good thing. It disincentivises hoarding of cash.

Do you think the same rules apply to an information economy?

Why would they not?
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