“I wanted to send my kids to college. It’s, like, $200 a year!” – Unfrosted
But I do have degrees in Mike Rowe Economics and Mike Rowe Biology.
NEET is Internet slang for “Not in Employment, Education, or Training” – in other words, “stays a home and smokes weed and plays video games”.
Mike Rowe, the Dirty Jobs guy, spent time noting last year that even with unemployment below 4%, 7 million men between the ages of 25 and 54 aren’t in the work force at all.
Now, I would hate to bring up the points that if our nation:
- sends all the factory jobs overseas,
- imports millions of foreigners with H1B visas (95,000 a year, minimum, since 2006, and more going back before that), or
- just like Google®, cut hundreds of highly-skilled technical jobs in the United States and offshore them to Mexico and India,
then maybe, just maybe, the job market actually sucks because the wages are depressed to the point where living conditions at those wage levels are literally third world.
They’re not send us their best, or their best navigators, but I wonder if the repairs will be riveting. (meme used with permission)
Why would people put up with that? The market.
An example I read recently was of a person from India claiming that the only way they could find a place to live (this was in Canada) was in a bed in a kitchen in a two-bedroom apartment where six other Indian families were living. Admittedly, this is probably an upgrade from living in a slum in Mumbai, but these six families each pay a sixth of the rent. If a typical Canadian family wanted to rent that apartment and each Indian family was making $300 payments, the Canadians would have to cough up $1800.
That’s why people are tenting it – tents are better (marginally) to the American psyche than living with six other families in a condition where “squalor” would be an upgrade.
Another example?
When I was a kid, delivery work was for kids. Sixteen-year-olds were the ones frying Big Macs® and driving pizza from the Pizza Den to people’s houses.
Now?
Doordash® is now an adult job and everyone I see running the windows of the fast-food places has been voting for a big chunk of this century.
The United States is slipping quickly (and then, I fear, all at once) into a third world economy. To be clear, I’m not blaming those attempting to get to a better place, but it would be magical thinking to believe that once they got here and were a majority that they’d not immediately turn the United States into just another version of their homeland. You know, the one they fled.
Biden can’t stop doing connect-the-dot puzzles even though he can’t finish one. I guess Biden just doesn’t know where to draw the line. (meme as found)
But some of them aren’t working at all. And of those men that aren’t working, a huge number of them are white guys. It turns out that all, and I mean all, of the job growth since Corona™ became something other than a beer, went to dudes that weren’t white. In fact, the number of white people in the workforce dropped while Joe Biden “created” all of these jobs.
They were replaced. On any job where there is a remotely credible alternative with some sort of “diversity” score based on: a sexual fetish, being “female”, missing one of their six spleens, race, ethnicity, or religion. Of course, white, Christian and male is the opposite of diverse even though that category is only 6% or less of all of the humans we know of in the Solar System, excluding Phobos.
With things like Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) actively putting up barriers to hiring (or keeping) white guys, I’m not surprised that many have just given up. They are pretending right now that that DEI is going away, but in reality, they’re keeping it but just naming it other things. “People and the Planet,” anyone? (Yes, it’s real.) Their goals really haven’t changed.
A lot of companies have women as DEI executives. I guess because it’s cheaper. (meme as found)
The big problem is that Identity is now more important than Competency. Think: Chernobyl 2.0, brought to you by DEI. Why no DEI in the NFL®? People actually care about meritocracy in football players, I guess.
Also, Automation is real. Factories of almost any type, when compared by their counterparts of 1960, are much more highly automated. A guy named Fred walking around to check temperatures on thermometers to make sure the boiler doesn’t suddenly wipe Peoria off the map has been replaced with sensors that feed pressure, temperature, and flowrates back to computers that automate the process. Fred’s out of a job, and, if those boiler automation systems weren’t programmed in India (looking at you, Boeing®) then Peoria is still safe.
Except for Fred, who doesn’t have that job anymore. A.I. is coming for lots and lots of other jobs. Starting now. According to Indeed®:
- Software development jobs are down 51.3%,
- Information Design down 44.3%
- IT Operations and Helpdesk down 33.5%
- Industrial Engineering down 30.3%
Are all of these jobs replaceable by A.I.? Of course not. But 35.3% of HR jobs (same study) apparently are.
I’m not a NEET, but I’m sure it’s easier being a NEET without a family. No particular requirement to have shelter other than couch surfing, and some NEETs work for a couple of months during the year and then goof off, smoke weed, and play video games during the rest of the time.
And you can do both of these things in a video game, while stoned. (meme as found)
Families have always been the nucleus that keeps men showered and shaved, but without them, men give up. It’s not like they can afford a family, either. Housing prices and interest rates are now high enough in most metro locations that most young families are effectively locked out of homeownership. The price to income ratio has doubled since 1985 nationally – homes are now twice as expensive as 1985 compared to median family incomes. Add in 7%+ interest rates, and you’ll see why the middle class has caused Red Lobster to go bankrupt.
Who knew we’d live to see so many movies come true? (meme as found)
In reality, there’s not a labor shortage – there’s only a labor shortage at the wages companies are willing to pay, and a ludicrous inflation of the value of women so that what they bring to the table (for kids) doesn’t equal what they have to put. NEETs don’t really care about either. They’ve got their weed, couches, and video games.
Back in the day there were two primary motivations for working, one was to support a family and the other was to not be seen as a lazy bum. Without families and with apparently no social stigma for being a bum, why go to work when you stay home, play Call of Duty and smoke weed? Heck, you can even get Taco Bell delivered right to your door.
Yes. Maybe we’re making our own Matrix.
Twenty-plus years ago, I ran across the Mother Shipton Prophesies. One prophesy that has repeatedly popped to mind over the past several years reads:
They’ll be a sign for all to see
be sure that it will certain be.
Then love shall die and marriage cease
and nations wane as babes decrease.
And wives shall fondle cats and dogs
and men live much the same as hogs.
I remember at the time thinking, “There’s no way they’ll ever get men and women to stop doing what they do (thanks to hormones)” … but they have done it. Additionally, I believe it was in the presentation called “The New Order of the Barbarians” (given in the late 60’s) where the presenter (the head of Planned Parenthood at the time) stated that (sic) “We will destroy the relationships between men and women” – which sounded insane … but they’ve done it.
We’re seeing something new, I believe.
Around the world, men’s thoughts will fly, Quick as the twinkling of an eye. And water shall great wonders do, How strange, and yet it shall come true.
The Great Replacement — largely complete now — was in rotten bloom when I was at J.C. in the mid-seventies. Trading-out young doods for young women. Started in the colleges.
Likewise, the workplaces incrementally became not just a-masculine, but anti-masculine, by the mid-nineties. Since then, doubling and tripling down by the Woke-Fem Politburo.
Men are checking out of, and walking away from, feminist nations that make no secret of their hatred towards them, with persecution and loathing for even the concept of masculinity and fatherhood.
The motivation for this differs slightly for females and elites, but their collusion is readily traceable to the early twentieth century, and both groups benefit — however temporarily — from the degradation and destruction of boys, men, and masculinity.
It is a war on God the Father, ultimately. They hate that God is boldly, unapologetically, and purely masculine. lol The elites want their ancient pagan goddess revivified (wah wah). Large and in-charge. Why? Well why did the enemy attack the woman, and not the man? As for women, they just want raw power and the thrill of usurping male position and place.
You hit the nail quite perfectly. It is a war.
I wonder who is making the deliberate decision to exclude White men from new hires. Is it other White men? If so, they should really know better. I’ve endured some truly gobsmackingly poor hiring choices through the decades of my career. Women and minorities who could not engineer their strong, diverse selves out of a wet paper bag with a roadmap plus escort. What it required was a few of us pale males willing to shoulder the burden for the rest of the “team”.
Now that the “team” is mostly diverse and pale males are checking out, figuring “What’s the use?” the inevitable collapse is underway. I’ve watched at least a dozen of my highly skilled, crazy-smart male coworkers jump ship or retire early rather than suffer the indignity of having to answer to an incompetent diversity hire or a clueless female half their age, each chosen strictly to check off a box to satisfy goobermint mandates.
Our adversaries world-wide are not hamstrung by the same ludicrous DEI requirements and will eat our lunch when things go kinetic. That goes for the commercial world as well as the battlefield.
Women (mainly) run HR, and they skew Left. And I’ve heard many a story of (say) Indians infiltrating companies and, when they hire, hiring only other Indians.
Always struck me as odd that no one started an all-female corporation that produced actual useful stuff or services – concrete suppliers, computers, electricians, ball-point pens… Since we ALL know that women are paid way less than men for equal output, this corporation would clean up in the profit world. They could undercut by 5-10% the selling prices of the product, and still rake in 10-15% more profit – if they wanted to. Good times for everyone.
Where is the National Organization for Women when they could easily prove a point – QED?
OOOOH, you are SO going to get it!
That stat has been disproved more times than I can count. Yes, average wages of women are lower when seen from an annual level. NO, they are NOT lower when you look at hours worked.
OMZ (Oh, My Zeus – why blaspheme MY God?)!
You mean that women want to work fewer hours than men will (men are more concerned about making enough to support their family)?
Yes. AND, even before having kids, women are all about that free time to spend that Ka-Ching!
I’m a former teacher. I made less than I might have in the private sector, but I also had hours/days compatible with raising a family – as did my husband. We made that sacrifice to make family life more workable.
On the positive side, we also lived below our income – unlike a LOT of teachers, most of the worst were women. We put that extra money towards education for our kids, making extra payments on our mortgage, and saving for retirement. We did not drive expensive cars, take pricey cruises, nor indulge in other extravagances.
Today, we are comfortably retired; we have leftover income after all bills are paid. We have been upgrading our house for senior living, putting in a chair lift for the basement, new roof, basement waterproofing – and, any interest-free loans have been or will be paid off before due. Although we grumble about the cost of food and utilities, we can still afford them.
I have to be honest, the women I know who are single and working will likely have to either continue working until they die, or reduce their standard of living considerably. They just have very little understanding that their outgo is WAY too high for them to manage long-term.
They want the Sex & the City lifestyle without any unpleasant reality.
Good summary of the situation. To maybe add one more anecdote….I remember reading an article in the newspaper (back when those were still a thing) that said single employees without kids were effectively getting 1 to 2 weeks less of effective time off vs. employees with kids. The author went on to describe how people with kids (both male and female) get a lot more leeway and unofficial time off to care for sick kids, pick them up when school let out early, etc. They also often got to work from home back before COVID made that into a more common event. Granted all of these are reasonable excuses for allowing someone to leave work early and are understandable, but the author pointed out that there aren’t really any equivalent excuses for the childless employee so they end up working more hours for the same pay. The author actually recommended that single/childless people should consider calling in sick more, particularly for mild illnesses like a head cold that they might otherwise work through.
Miami had an all-female engineering company. They famously designed and built a pedestrian bridge back in 2018. Well, about half a bridge, anyway.
One woman did in the UK. Google it. It was an awful failure.
I threw in the towel and recently retired early from an engineering job that I otherwise liked, but got tired of the DEI pandering. I wasn’t alone. We had gotten to the point that my employer was openly telling everyone that they were preferentially hiring females (and many being promoted were pitifully underqualified so it just started becoming insulting). We also started having major plant accidents at an alarming rate (not Boeing level, but enough to make everyone nervous). It was also just mind blowing sitting in meetings with managers who literally had no understanding of any of the products we made, the chemistry involved, or the work needed to maintain those products. And because these managers didn’t understand any of the real technical issues, they never really wanted to talk about them (and/or they didn’t know what to do). So our meetings devolved more and more into discussions on trivial items like housekeeping and yes, more DEI while the company burned.
The scary part is that it took years to build some of our divisions into highly productive organizations, and DEI literally destroyed these groups in less than a year.
And competence is no longer valued.
Bravo. I was going to add something about this to my post about your Civil War Civil Report, but decided against it to concentrate on the inter-elite competition. I’ve glad I did because you described the situation much better.
Thank you (again!) for the kind words.
I’m thinking the young men aren’t working because either their parents, or some government agency, allows them to survive without producing. Cut off the food, and the enabling, and they’ll obtain a different attitude. Of course, some will want to take the easy life of crime, but coming to my neck of the woods will change their attitude….maybe forever.
Let me guess, you are a boomer. Why else would you hate your own people more than you hate others? Yeah, great idea, let’s force young White men off the welfare rolls so they can get a job to pay for all the darkies on the welfare rolls. And shoot them if they don’t.
/boomer_flex
Gotta keep that social scurity fed, at least until you die, then fuck the rest of us, right? You people are a plague on society, and the sooner you all die off the better.
Nope, lots of them work the bare minimum, and consume very little. They’ve just checked out of the mainstream.
“I have a dream…”
…that one day soon, a rich white CEO is going to found a company, and demand nothing but competence, which will end up staffed with 95% nothing but formerly-unemployed and/or DEI-fired straight white males as far as the eye can see, and his company is going to make so much money Wall Street will be standing outside yelling “Take my money!”, and when the government threatens to sue him, he’ll have so much money to spend on his defense, they’ll go bankrupt losing against him.
For bonus points, because he’s playing chess, not checkers, he’ll found his company in the same city as the federal district court, in a state where you have to go to museum or a PBS documentary to see diversity, and everyone within 500 miles will have a close family relative employed by him, and he’ll laugh all the way to and from the courthouse, forever.
I really like your dream, but sadly it will probably never happen. The whole lawfare situation against Trump is showing that the govt essentially has unlimited funds to keep driving new cases. It’s only because the prosecutors as such glorious examples of DEI incompetence that it is starting to backfire in terms of public opinion. Otherwise, they would just keep going until they find a judge who will make some charge stick.
How many armored divisions does the judge command?
You could probably still get away with that in Idaho or Wyoming.
Tell me again how it’s possible for one group of humans to permanently avoid military and economic competition with all other groups of humans. Use the Aztecs vs. Spanish as an example.
I love that comment. You may flee competition, but you can’t forever. It all has consequences.
We need to replace young male apathy with hate and love.
Make love and hate healthy and productive again.
It ties back to my Nihilism post on Friday – without a deeper belief, it all falls apart.
Well, yes. But is it good for the [censored]?
Well, it’s not good for Western Civ, but here we are.