Why are men dropping out of society? - mod note in 1st post

Mr Arrior wrote:

Oh I know now, it was all down to some insecurities about trying to make a woman like me etc

tigger123 wrote: »

Blindboy was spot on in his analysis on the Late Late on Friday. If, as a man, you embrace the core of the Feminist idea (that men and women are equal), you're going to have a much healthier relationship with the opposite sex IMO.

Wibbs wrote:

Keep ploughing that furrow of yours, but just because you say feminism = gender egalitarianism doesn't make it so. It is demonstrably not the case. The very name of the movement should give a hint. More and more are beginning to see the BS that exists within much of so called "feminism" and gender equality is little enough to do with it, save where it comes to women(naturally and rightfully considering the aims and philosophy of the movement). That's demonstrably evident too.

Political economist Nicholas Eberstadt calls these men “the unworking,” to distinguish them from people who want work but can’t find it. “America is now home to a vast army of jobless men who are no longer even looking for work,” he writes. “Roughly seven million of them age 25 to 54, the traditional prime of working life.” His new book, Men Without Work: America’s Invisible Crisis, is essential reading for this election cycle. “For every prime-age man who is unemployed today,” he writes, “another three are neither working nor looking for work.” Most of these men are less educated, and many, particularly blacks, have prison records.




The standard argument goes that globalization and technology are responsible for the vast destruction of working-class jobs. And that’s true. But in fact, the work rate has been in decline for two generations. What happened during those decades was a massive shift in cultural values.

Not so long ago, virtually all men in their prime worked. The only exceptions were the disabled and the feeble-minded. Work was integral to what it was to be a man, and not to work was shameful. That’s no longer true. Today, a man can choose a no-work lifestyle as an option – and plenty do. They’re quite happy to sit around and watch TV, sponging off the government, their relatives and their girlfriends.

The eminent economist Lawrence Summers does not believe this is a blip. He says it’s more like a snowball. “Everything we hear and see regarding technology suggests the rate of job destruction will pick up,” he wrote in The Washington Post. He’s also worried about social contagion. “To the extent that non-work is contagious, it is likely to grow exponentially rather than at a linear rate.” If current trends continue, he expects that more than one-third of all men in the 25-54 age group will be out of work by mid-century. That is a truly terrifying prospect – as well as fertile soil for toxic populism.

At its root, the collapse of the working class isn’t so much economic as it is social, moral and spiritual. This means that economic remedies will only take us so far. Marriage rates for less-educated men have plunged – and unmarried men are far more likely to opt for unwork. The percentage of babies born to unmarried parents has soared. Working-class whites have largely abandoned church (while church attendance among higher-income whites has stayed relatively high). Family and community networks have dissolved.

Meanwhile, opiate addictions are ripping through the Rust Belt like a plague. For the first time in history, death rates among white, less educated, middle-aged Americans are actually going up – mostly because of drug and alcohol poisoning, suicides and liver disease. Angus Deaton, the Nobel-winning economist who documented the phenomenon with his wife and fellow Princeton economist Anne Case, calls them “deaths of despair.” Women are not spared. “Across the country, middle-aged white women are dying at staggeringly higher rates, particularly from drug overdoses, suicides and excessive drinking,” reports The Washington Post in a harrowing investigative series. One reason: Women have gained a social licence to drink and smoke like men.

Today, to crib a line from Marx, opiates are the opiate of the masses. We’re not supposed to say it’s anybody’s fault, of course – talk of blame and personal responsibility are taboo in public policy. But the more that undesirable behaviour is normalized, the more people will behave that way. “I have known a lot of people who like to get up in the morning and start getting high (pot, THC, whatever),” one reader commented, in response to an erudite discussion of working-class woes on an economics website. “I have trouble relating to that because I do not have that desire at all but none of them seemed to be in any particular despair. As far as I could tell it was entertainment.”

H3llR4iser wrote: »

I maintain my position that plenty of men would gladly have it with a hole in the wall if somebody painted some boobs and a vj around it



The "social pressure" about looks is a fishy subject - on women, it is a well known quantity and an openly discussed topic; But there's an enormous (and increasingly so) amount of it on men as well, especially younger ones, which goes mostly under the radar - general consensus is "ah you're a man, you can care nothing about what you look like!", but then remarks are made about height, six-packs and whatnot. Gyms all over the western world are chock-a-block with guys trying to look like David Beckham or Henry Cavill.

Mister Vain wrote: »

I don't think that's the real issue though, or at least its only part of it. I reckon a lot of guys feel like they don't live up to a certain physical ideal too. There's a lot more pressure on young men to look a certain way now. Online dating hasn't helped matters either as it has created a window shopping mentality where men are more disposable than ever.

The lad culture has changed drastically in the last decade. They've kind of been hardened and softened at the same time and are in the midst of an identity crisis.

Mr Arrior wrote: »

But women are mostly put under pressure from other women, which doesn't really affect the dating scene.

Mr Arrior wrote: »

Us guys have to look very good to have any chance to get a girlfriend.