An Economic Mystery: Why Are Men Leaving The Workfor...

Something on the order of one out of every eight adult men has got a felony conviction

Holy shit no wonder so many men aren't working.

Then, of course, there's the really obvious, simple and yet complicated answer about able bodied men who don't have a full time job:

They're depressed.

Your American manhood depends on 1. providing for you family; aka working. You aren't working? You're certainly not going to be a stay at home dad and take care of the kids. That's women's work. So where does that leave you?

Unemployed. Feeling useless. Relying on someone else; wife, government assistance, small unfulfilling part time jobs; and destroying your self worth. Which makes it hard to get motivation to do anything.

But they did manage to do one thing. Vote. And see where that left us. Left them, too.

Granted my eyes are bad but I think that article's dated 2016

... and the article paints a stupidly-simple list of reasons to an insanely complicated issue

Which is a big problem I have with most of these bird's-eye-view topics: neglects to consider just how many factors throw into such patterns popping up.

Two actual general factors nationwide—you mentioned one: lack of purpose. That shit hits hard—no one's going to move if they don't feel needed.

The other actual general factor is that 70 years ago you didn't need a degree to be able to feed your family and pay for your house/land.

Now, certifications are an oversaturated staysake. Clawing up the ladder through entry level is bound to get you killed financially, so you need an overly-expensive piece of sheepskin and a good network to remain financially solvent and independent.

Paldeahaveadime : Yeah, the article is from 2016. I used it because it had that quote i wanted in it. I got there from this article that's from this month

Despite Job Boom, More Men Are Giving Up On Work

The problem hasn't changed. It may in fact be worse.

The article isnt long enough for in depth analysis. Neither are. So i expect them to be general and I fill in the picture better with my own reading.

The lack of good paying labor jobs WHERE THESE MEN LIVE is the problem. There are.craftsperson jobs. They just arent where those people live, and you have to have money to move.

And of course businesses being cheap asses and not wanting to train people doesn't help. Then crying about no workers but not wanting to pay enough to attract skilled workers. Businesses who shun qualified workers because they don't have dat there proper edumacation.

There are tons of smaller issues that culminated into the fuckery of our current situation.

Feeds into the issue being a multi-faced hydra, as I mentioned. Moving is a thing. But schools, even vocational ones, not getting actual experience or tracking their students to apprenticeships is another.

So the ones who have the paper have zero practical experience, and as a result can't do the work required of them.

HVAC field is my sample, here. The actual age gap between the capable and the ones who don't know what opposable thumbs are is terrifyingly wide. And the capable ones are in their 70s and do not have much longer left.

So the dudes with paper have something they can't use, get frustrated, and walk away to another career at entry level. Or fake it until they make it.

Mostly the former

lol I'm a welder. we're in similar straights. People come in with a cert from somewhere. They go to our welding school in house. They pass that and think they got it. They come in to the yard proper as a worker and it is like night and day.

Kids aren't prepared for this bullshit. No one is preparing them either. Not in the numbers the shipyard needs. Thats why we have so many contractors. And theyre in their 30s usually. Ive only met one in his 20s.