By Laura PerrinsPosted on 08/25/2016 5:04:25 PM PDT by annalex
Something strange is going on with the working class men of America. Many in this class of men are no longer working, and it is not for the lack of jobs.
As Charles Murray explains in White America – while upper middle class men (and their wives) work more and more, working-class men work less and less to such and extent that we must insert those quotes – the working class man, is now the ‘working’ class man. This phenomenon has caught the attention of the White House and is said to have caused the rise of Donald Trump.
Both Murray and similar accounts confirm that although the collapse in traditional working class jobs is partly to blame, it is the collapse in working class culture that has driven this change.
In fact, an incredible ‘7 million American men between the ages of 25 and 54 are neither working nor looking for work. That amounts to 12 per cent of all men in those prime working ages – and that doesn’t count another 2 million who are looking for work but haven’t found it.’
These numbers are staggering and have commentators from Left to Right in a flap. In fact, “participation among prime-age men peaked in 1954, declined only slightly until the mid-1960s, and then began to decline in earnest in the decade between 1965 and 1975. Since then, participation has fallen persistently, with sharper declines in recessionary periods that were not fully reversed in the subsequent expansions,” according to this official White House report.
So it seems just as women were liberating themselves from the prison of the home, working class men have liberated themselves from work. Perhaps unsurprisingly one liberation – that of women – has been celebrated, but the other is causing panic.
Ah, but my feminist sisters say, these men are just the new modern man. They are taking over childcare and home duties while their partners go to work. That was our grand plan it is all coming to fruition. Not quite.
Instead, these men are having a bit of ‘me’ time. “They’re not spending any more time on child care or chores.” Instead these men spend up to 10.5 hours a day on media in all its form. They are playing Grand Theft Auto is what they are doing.
This commentator views this as an ominous sign, “the time and money these activities rob from relationships, work, and savings can hardly be overestimated.”
What has caused this collapse in work ethic in the ‘working’ class man – it cannot be solely the draw of the gaming experience? What, now remind me again, happened between 1965-1975 in the US? Ah yes that was second wave feminism telling men how they were ‘tying women to the kitchen sink’ while the husbands enjoyed the life of Riley outside it (The Feminine Mystique was published in 1963).
And the husbands were having a great time in the working world, were they are not? Here, Jack Arnold the patriarchal father in the classic Wonder Years, explains the fabulousness of it all to his son. “I get up at five in morning. I fight traffic; I bust my hump all day. I fight traffic again and then I come home. And then I pay my taxes. The end.” And Jack was middle-class - so you can just imagine what it was like for the working class man.
So should we really be surprised that the ‘working’ class man says, you know, thanks – but no thanks. What with welfare, he can just about make it through and no longer needs the often spirit crushing job he had to support his family.
Because this is something the feminists never thought through – men can opt-out and survive. They will not thrive, and I think ultimately it is at great personal loss to themselves and others, but if they don’t like the family and work deal offered, they’ll just opt-out of both. They will not organise, they will not take to Twitter they will just ‘socially withdraw.’
The truth is since the 1960s the working class man has not only seen his economic prospects hit, but more fundamentally his position in society has been trashed. The status he had as ‘head of the family’ no matter how menial and meaningless the job was on its own, had meaning and dignity as it sustained a family.
But this status has been gradually eroded over the decades, first by the feminists, who poured scorn on the husband who provides, then by the welfare state who said we can do this job better than you, and finally by the liberals who said fathers were surplus to requirements.
All of this spells disaster of course for the working class woman who is left scratching a living in low-paid jobs and welfare while holding the baby. This will cause the elite with their married dual career parents to pull further away, while the children of lone mothers fall further behind. And the liberals will continue to decry this ‘inequality’ without ever grasping the fact that they caused it.
If you want to be on this right wing, monarchy, paleolibertarianism and nationalism ping list, but are not, please let me know. If you are on it and want to be off, also let me know. This ping list is not used for Catholic-Protestant debates; all confessions are welcome.
Work is for suckers.
Live off the man.
I got retired. Now I spend ZERO minutes of my of my life working for Hussein. ALL of my time is my own. Free at Last...
I really hate the term working class. I am almost 50, and I will bet any amount of money that close to zero percent of similar age working class people have worked half the amount of life time hours I have. And I am away from home most of the time. I will further bet that I can do 75% of their jobs minimal training (except high skilled jobs that require years of training), but less than 1% of them could do mine.
Many have given up in the Clinton-Bush-Obama internationalist economy.
Any time spent generating taxable income is time wasted, any more.
White males say, see ya around.
Actually, not long ago, I read an article about White males who have been 'bumped' out of the work-place for all the diversity BS have been forced to start their own small service companies just to have a decent paying job, and.....are quietly getting rich.
,,,the biggest change to divorce law in the United States in its history came with no-fault divorces in the 1970’s. Up until now there still had to be a party at fault. Even in the Family Courts, there was still a need for an adulterer or such like to be identified and then for the terms of the divorce to be agreed however with the change in the law then a divorce could be granted if neither party was at fault...
Manyard?
Maynard G. Krebs.
Don’t forget Zelda on her skates. She was cute when she was on that show. Turns out she was playing for the other team all along.
In any society, one of the fundamental issues is "How can we keep men motivated to work hard to support family and offspring, and be willing to defend the society?"
With women initiating 70% of divorces, more and more men are seeing marriage as an unattractive deal. Too many wind up divorced, and having to pay child support for kids that their ex-wives try hard to alienate from their dads.
So, as the author notes, more and more men are "Going Galt". They are foregoing marriage and family, knowing that sex can be gotten without having to be married. They are working just hard enough to support themselves, and maximizing their leisure time. And real soon now, the feminists will find out just what their new world will turn into.
Truth of,life.
Feminists will bitch about whatever men do or do not do. Regardless. They live, they bitch. They die, they bitch. They work, they bitch. They dont work, they bitch.
“All of this spells disaster of course for the working class woman who is left scratching a living in low-paid jobs and welfare while holding the baby.”
They are maintaining the charade that these “working class” males are breeding - trust me, they rarely do. No judgment on my part; someone who wants to play Grand Theft Auto all day knows better than to have children.
The simple fact is that for many people working simply isn’t worth it; many of us who are working are watching advancement prospects disappear for “diversity’s sake” - and I’ve reduced my own hours to the bare minimum for full-time work in response. My employer has to suck it up because they are giving more money to tokens with less experience, knowledge, and workload.
I think some of them definitely fall in this category.
My tagline references it.
That seems to be a big issue avoided here: Once men opt out of families, they don’t have to kill themselves as breadwinners. Why should they? If they don’t need to work, good for them; our ‘hoodrats have been laughing at us for decades now doing the same thing (though they should be breadwinners - they are breeding).
My feminist co-workers see the new world (any co-workers under thirty are foreigners), and they hate it.
Lawyers. Once nofault came about, lawyers could finally make a lot of money off divorce. Then unconstitutional family courts came about. The family court racket makes 50 billion dollars a year off divorce.
Combine it with fedgov taking more and more money from working people to reward nonworkers for pumping out kids and fedgov worker pensions and people stop wanting to feed the machine.
First two sentences, exactly.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.