Quotes from Nicholas Eberstadt

Although he may not always recognize his bondage, modern man lives under a tyranny of numbers.

Although he may not always recognize his bondage, modern man lives under a tyranny of numbers.

OVER THE PAST two generations, America has suffered a quiet catastrophe. That catastrophe is the collapse of work—for men. In the half century between 1965 and 2015, work rates for the American male spiraled relentlessly downward, and an ominous migration commenced: a "flight from work," in which ever-growing numbers of working-age men exited the labor force altogether.

Since the end of the twentieth century, the United States has witnessed an ominous and growing divergence among three trends that should ordinarily move together: wealth, output, and employment.

OVER THE PAST two generations, America has suffered a quiet catastrophe. That catastrophe is the collapse of work—for men.

How big is the "men without work" problem today? Consider a single fact: in 2015, the work rate (or employment-to-population ratio) for American males ages twenty-five–to–fifty-four was slightly lower than it had been in 1940, which was at the tail end of the Great Depression.