Introduction: Post-pandemic edition (2022) -- Introduction: 2016 edition -- The collapse of work in the second gilded age -- Hiding in plain sight : an army of jobless men, lost in an overlooked depression -- Postwar America's great male flight from work -- America's great male flight from work in historical and international perspective -- Who is he? : a statistical portrait of the un-working American man -- Idle hands : time use, social participation, and the male flight from work -- Long-term structural forces and the decline of work for American men -- Dependence, disability, and living standards for un-working men -- Criminality and the decline of work for American men -- What is to be done? -- Creating the beginning to of an end / by Henry Olsen -- A well-known problem / by Jared Bernstein -- A response to Olsen and Bernstein.
Summary:
Eberstadt explains how the government's response to Covid-19 inadvertently exacerbated the flight from work in America. From indiscriminate pandemic shutdowns to almost unconditional "unemployment" benefits, Americans were essentially paid not to work. Thus today, despite the vaccine rollouts, inexplicable numbers of working age men and women are sitting on the sidelines while over 11 million jobs go unfilled. Current low rates of unemployment, touted by pundits and politicians, are grievously misleading. The truth is that fewer prime-age American men are looking for readily available work than at any previous juncture in our history. And others may be catching the "Men Without Work" virus too.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.