A rising number of American men don't want to work

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Minimum wage hasn’t been raised in a long time (and should be tied to inflation).

Can’t pay for rent car note insurance any kinds of luxuries etc. With the pressure on men to be balling or at least bread winners it’s no shock some men give up.

I don’t think it’s about not wanting to work per se but wanting to work jobs that aren’t even affording you the basics.

I always think about All in the Family. Archie was able to buy a decent house, have a stay home wife, afford a kid, likely take vacations etc on a middle class salary and it was realistic at the time. This is obviously highly unlikely today.

There has been a price to pay for 40 years of trickle down economics

What could have been if FDR’s “Second Bill of Rights” had come to fruition. Instead corporations and the wealthy were allowed to take over society. Largely because a lot of the lower and middle classes were brainwashed into thinking these things were filthy socialism and there is racial component about the “wrong types” of people benefiting from robust social programs.

From FDR State of the Union speech:
. Among these are:

  • The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
  • The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
  • The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
  • The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
  • The right of every family to a decent home;
  • The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
  • The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
  • The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
One issue is that the period with Archie Bunker.....that was a rare time in American history where men could handle everything on one check. The vast majority of our history, it wasn't like that.

Before, everyone was farming so you needed the whole family to help. In modern times you need a dual income unless one person makes crazy bank. That post WW2/baby boom era through the 70s is something politicians keep trying to replicate but it won't happen. Europe was in shambles after the war and America + USSR were the dominant superpowers....except America was "open" and the Eastern Bloc was closed off. We can't replicate those conditions today.
 

Dwayne_Taylor

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This notion that men don't want to work is a lie. They stay making up these statistics about how such and such American doesn't want to work, is lazy and how only foreigners want to do jobs. All of this is corporate sponsored garbage so they can only bring in and exploit cheap foreign labor. The reality is most young men can't find a job that pays a livable wage, and why would they want to slave at some fast food job where they can't even afford to live?
Repped
 

Scustin Bieburr

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People are literally seeing their buying power evaporate at a rapid rate. The rich boomers who haven't had a real job since MLK was alive think the economy is good actually because their stock portfolios are looking good. They don't think unemployment is a problem because they think working as an "independent contractor" for Uber or grubhub counts as a job despite the obvious lack of protections, security and minimal income a person gets from that.

Men don't want to work, but will have to work and endure their suffering until a massive economic crash happens and affects the stock portfolios of the 1%. Then regulators may actually get some more funding and be allowed to do their jobs so reckless CEOS don't ruin their companies chasing short term gains.
 

Dwayne_Taylor

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This notion that men don't want to work is a lie. They stay making up these statistics about how such and such American doesn't want to work, is lazy and how only foreigners want to do jobs. All of this is corporate sponsored garbage so they can only bring in and exploit cheap foreign labor. The reality is most young men can't find a job that pays a livable wage, and why would they want to slave at some fast food job where they can't even afford to live?
It's history repeating itself.

When they started closing factories in the 70s and sending those jobs to Mexico and China, it mostly effected black men in coastal cities.....the excuse was - black men are lazy and don't want to work.

It's the go to excuse anytime they want to displace workers.
 
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Bar Razor

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One issue is that the period with Archie Bunker.....that was a rare time in American history where men could handle everything on one check. The vast majority of our history, it wasn't like that.

Before, everyone was farming so you needed the whole family to help. In modern times you need a dual income unless one person makes crazy bank. That post WW2/baby boom era through the 70s is something politicians keep trying to replicate but it won't happen. Europe was in shambles after the war and America + USSR were the dominant superpowers....except America was "open" and the Eastern Bloc was closed off. We can't replicate those conditions today.
While the conditions are different from post WW2 there were policy decisions that were made that have contributed mightily to today’s circumstances. The richest earned like an extra 2 trillion during a goddamn pandemic. That’s just during the pandemic. We wasted 2 trillion in iraq and Afghanistan. Trumps tax cuts for the wealthy blew up the defect. Not to mention all the revenue lost from 40 years of the failed trickle down economics. I submit that all of that money could have been utilized for the middle and lower classes in a variety of ways but again the 40 year project of making it sinful to some to tax the wealthy more has done a number.

Even hundreds of millionaires and billionaires recently signed a letter begging to be taxed more as they have seen the economic devastation this has wrought.
 
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