You are familiar with the litany of ills blighting our society: declining rates of work and marriage; rising rates of obesity and loneliness; soaring deaths of despair. All of these trends reflect the falling fortunes of the American male, a malaise magnified when we look at boys and men in poor and working-class communities.
When the male malaise is raised among conservatives, too often the blame is assigned to “culture,” that most nebulous of forces. The assumption here is that vague changes in the culture—shifts in norms, preferences, and aspirations—are robbing men of their sense of industry and ambition, not to mention their ability to forge meaningful ties to others—including a wife.
What goes unacknowledged here is that real institutions—Big Business and Big Education—also have had a hand in the worsening lot of American males.
Fewer men are working in America than ever before, according to the chart aboveGeneral Social Survey. The share of young men (aged 25–35) who are working full-time fell from about 80 percent in the 1990s to less than 70 percent today. For men without college degrees, the fall in full-time employment…
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