woods89
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2021
- Messages
- 821
I cannot like this enough. Very well said.Lots of reasons I assume, but one is the decay of prospects for the “working man”. Whether gender, genetics, nuture, culture or a mix of all, most men align their self-worth with what they do and this connects to their need to “provide”.
As we move to an “information economy”, many of the best paying jobs are well suited to a much smaller percentage of people than the blue collar glory days of the 1950s. This is further pushed by “de-industrialization in the US as we move remaining traditional blue collar jobs to cheaper off shore locations so that the “information class” can have an ever expanding list of cheap goods to spend on.
Global information systems have also raised the bar/expectations of what one needs. Lots of studies show that happiness is not driven by a set amount of goods/money, but rather by comparing yourself to your neighbor. When I grew up, comparing myself and my “stuff” to my neighbors in ND was much less daunting than today comparing myself and my “stuff” against Silicon Valley millionaires that I can see every day in YouTube.
The delay in marriage also likely plays a role.
So, we have an increasing percentage of males under the age of 30 who do not have hope/belief that they will be able to even replicate the lifestyle of their parents, let alone exceed it, are not yet in settled family units, fear they can’t provide a home, have shrinking prospects for a rewarding job that will provide sufficient income and stability to raise a family, and they are tapped into a broader culture that devalues them and celebrates the excess of the “information class”.
This is a recipe for disaster. Lots of studies have shown that a rise in unmarried young males correlates with rise in violence and war.