30% of all Working-Age Men in America Aren’t Doing Diddly-Squat

I haven't worked in 10 years.

Not working is everything I always hoped it could be.

originally posted by: Irishhaf
a reply to: Stupidsecrets

horrifying aspect of those stats is how bout 60-70 years ago black families were the most stable in the US bar none.

then some progressives decided they needed saving...

I served in the military during the Katrina hurricane and also other tragic events globally. One thing that I always witnessed; despite the enormous amount of Federal assistance given, the real meaningful assistance was not supplied by the government. It was always churches of all faiths and just good people with the means to help and volunteer. It is truly inspiring and truly awesome. I'm an old tough Marine but it has brought me to tears more than once seeing it. It was the churches sheltering people, handing out clean clothes and supplies. By the time the government got involved they turned it into a depressing welfare system where people began taking advantage of the situation and exploiting it. That is what I witnessed time and time again.

Big government will absolutely destroy any sense of morality. That is what I witnessed time and time again and am witnessing again with unemployment.

a reply to: Stupidsecrets

Yup when Moore Oklahoma got flattened a few years ago by an F5 that skipped across the state it was the churches that handled all the small towns Fema couldnt be bothered to do more than write a check for.

Or Glenn Becks Mercury one responding to Houston way ahead of the Fed.

originally posted by: musicismagic

originally posted by: Waterglass

Ha ha so after watching all those guys over there throughout Asia-Pacific chanting deeth to e merica and all those others just protesting the USA. I often wonders how they made money. Are they Gigolos? Well seems like USA Joe Six Pack has finally had enough of the you know who cartels. Along with the feminists and god knows what else.

Wake up merica?

You decide!

7 ways men live without working in America

It’s true that the pandemic, which of course produced a number of factors that made working more difficult never mind dangerous, pushed the labor participation rate to a record low. But the fact that millions of American males have not been working precedes COVID-19 by decades. In fact, the participation rate for men peaked at 87.4% in October 1949 and has been dropping steadily ever since. It now stands at 67.7%. As a business journalist for a good portion of those 70-plus years, I’ve looked at thousands of charts and graphs in my life, and I have to say this one is as jaw dropping as it is vexing:

Heck, restaurants here have to close down due to no employees. For real.

They are here too. It sucks but oh well, I'm no longer allowed to go to one due to vax passports.

a reply to: Irishhaf

Lots of times in the Midwest, the small towns will rally before the Feds get anywhere near. My mom's hometown was hit hard, took out all the schools, and the community rallied around, both local families and churches, to get the cleanup going and it was well-organized and underway when the FEMA guy showed up.

He basically said there wasn't much they hadn't already done that he could have them do.

And when Joplin was taken out, several of my coworkers were part of church groups and organized and when down for weeks after that one to help cleanup and get people organized and on their feet.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Irishhaf

Part of the problem was the incentive to ditch the family structure written into the welfare code.

You can be married and just barely scraping by, living in poverty by most standards, or you can be single parent and get all the goodies the state offers, essentially replacing daddy with the state which is what happened in a lot of cases. And once you are in the system and hooked, it's hard to get off because there is no gradual weaning. It's all or nothing, so it's hard to get to a place where you can replace all that income you are losing in benefits with a single person's job or even the lower tier jobs of two people.

Excellent point. This is a huge issue and here also applies bare bones provincial disability as it's tied to the welfare system and keeps people in abject poverty. Those who have worked decent jobs and end up on disability are more likely to be getting federal disability and there are many more programs around it to help transition people to productive work if they want. These provincial programs don't allow any transition and offer just under $400 a month for rent so these people aren't even able to find homes with rents starting at about double that. The only transition programs available are resume writing basics and if they apply for student loans they lose their disability, which is exceptionally hard to get. Married couples get less than two single people so the math says that two at $400 a month can afford rent where a couple at $600 can't. I'm making up the numbers but it is proportionally correct. Marriage becomes a financial liability plus, and this I speak from experience, when my kids were toddlers my husband and I ended up on welfare as he was an alcoholic (I tried to work but he passed out with the kids and wouldn't change diapers) but unfortunately the man gets the cheque. Many women who are in rough relationships won't admit to the relationship to protect what money they get.

I'm in canada but one of my son's just got his electrical ticket days before the pandemic and has been on unemployment for the most part this whole time, other than a few odd jobs. He wanted to get a camp job but now nowhere will hire those who are unvaccinated. He is one of many young men who feel covid isn't much of a threat but are uncomfortable getting the new shots and are unemployed while waiting to see if it's safe enough. Don't blame them but some are starting to spiral downward and that will be a tragedy.

DrugDealer = Better hours and better pay.
52 weeks holidays a year.
No health plan but hey you'll be dead before you can spend the cash anyway.

originally posted by: Waterglass

Well I live in South Carolina and can attest to that! Bunch of lazy mfers. Yes, to them a road kill meal is like hitting the jack pot. All colors and all races.

Ha ha so after watching all those guys over there throughout Asia-Pacific chanting deeth to e merica and all those others just protesting the USA. I often wonders how they made money. Are they Gigolos? Well seems like USA Joe Six Pack has finally had enough of the you know who cartels. Along with the feminists and god knows what else.

Wake up merica?

You decide!

7 ways men live without working in America

The article talks more about men making money different ways and then basically retiring early. As example you buy 100 bit coins in 2000 and you are done working at age 40.

Is this all a bad thing? In the resent past we have had a number of threads that talked about 30% of the population may not be able to find any work at all as we further our automation processes, and so we could see 100 million or more people on 100% Government support. Well if we have 30% of men not working and NOT on Government support I don't think that is a bad thing. What we see right now is really situational in that people are heading back to work now in droves since their checks have dried up.

originally posted by: igloo

They are here too. It sucks but oh well, I'm no longer allowed to go to one due to vax passports.

To be honest, except for a few we have basically stopped going to restaurants. I can hardly walk out under 100 bucks for 2 people these days, and even 250 is not shocking anymore.

2 Mexican dinners, 2 Margaritas = 100 bucks were I live. Top steak house can easily be over 400. Below is a higher end butcher shop prices near me, but I typically buy a 1/2 cow at a little over 3 bucks a pound. When I want a special steak I can go there instead of a restaurant and drink 2 bottles of wine too if I want. My cost would be well under 100 bucks for two of us at home with really nice steaks and good wine, and about 500 for the same at a good steakhouse.

This is 400 to 500 bucks easily
2 steaks $70 each
3 side dishes $20 each
2 bottles of wine $50 to 100 each
20% tip
8.5% tax
3.5% employee medical tax

A lot of it, is the inevitable outcome of the US outsourcing the vast majority of it's production base to cheap labor in foreign countries in the 90s to now. The roosters are coming home to roost and a couple of generations of a large segment of society was given the shaft and mostly ignored.

This country used to be a nation of builders and innovators. It's wealth and global power was built on the back of that and a vast number of people relied on those jobs as career jobs. Jobs that allowed people with only a high school education to have a career; buy cars, homes, educate their children and even build up a retirement.

When they outsourced those jobs they relied on tech and white collar jobs to fill the gap, but those jobs require higher education and training. A large portion of those production workers were not going to make the leap, nor did make the leap in the end. Not all people are book smart and college bound, some are good with their hands; they are builders. We left those people behind and ignored their plight; mainly because stuff was cheap and wall street and the government did just fine relying on the tech jobs and mega corps.

There never were enough tech jobs created to make up for the loss of production and even many of those jobs require training and education, that many of those workers, simply can't learn and do. There are still jobs for those people, in the trades, but the number of those jobs compared to the production jobs lost is not enough for all those workers. Now we have a situation where many American workers are stuck in low pay, dead in jobs getting nowhere and even today many will just tell them to get some education and skills and find a better jobs.

Many of them would. If those production base jobs were there. With the fourth industrial revolution already underway, it's not going to get better only worse.

a reply to: Waterglass

I don't get it. There's never been a better time for young men to get into a skilled trade. Electricians, plumbers, contractors of all kinds are desperate, they're turning down jobs here because they have too much work and no staff. Almost every job we go to, we talk to the guys and they're willing to train, pay for tickets and learning, they just can't find anyone willing or able to try or learn.

This trend's been going on for a while now, even 5 years ago or so I remember young dude after young dude coming through our shop. They had the opportunity to learn to be full on machinists, they all treated it like McDonald's. I remember this one dude straight up said to me 'I'd rather be at home with my girlfriend smoking weed.' I told him 'ok you can go then, go home, smoke weed if that's what you wanna do, nobody's forcing you to stay here. You're a grown up, you can stay and learn or you can leave. It's up to you.' and he #in' left. Didn't come back for a week then came back to demand his pay.

the population is 330 million in the US
the workforce is 160 million.

50 percent of the country never worked to start with. Women, children.

Time for the women to step up and get jobs. And children should be emancipated at age 13 and put to work in factories assembling toasters and iPhones and picking avocados and sorting packages at FedEx distribution centers. At age 16, give em an IQ test and if high enough, send em to high school for two years. And then "back to work"

a reply to: Irishhaf

You know. I know. The people take care of people. The government ruins any sense of morality and creates the opposite. Instead of people needing help they create a system of what can I get. What can I get without doing a damn thing.

a reply to: dug88

massive PR push by the for profit colleges that college was the only way to get ahead and they followed that up by watering down most of the good degrees, and adding things like gender studies, liberal arts etc.

I HOPE my son decides to go into a trade school, and I say this as a guy with a Masters degree, yes ill be able to make a bunch of money in the next decade (assuming the govt holds together) but trade skills will always be needed.

The light of true words.

a reply to: Irishhaf