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“Their minds or their bodies are too broken for them to work”

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Today, about 11.5 percent of men between the ages of 24-54 are neither employed nor looking for a job [up from 3.3 percent in 1948]. Economists say that these people are “out of the labor force” — and they don’t figure into statistics like the unemployment rate. […]

In a recently released draft of his paper, which he will present at a Federal Reserve conference in Boston on Friday, [Princeton professor Alan Krueger, a former chief economist at the Department of Labor and former chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers] finds that 44 percent of male, prime-age labor force dropouts say they took pain medication the day prior — which is more than twice the rate reported by employed men. […]

In a follow-up survey focusing on these male labor-force dropouts, Krueger found that these were serious habits. About two-thirds of the people taking pain medication were using prescription drugs, not over-the-counter remedies like Tylenol or aspirin. […]

About 20 percent of these men say they have difficulty walking or climbing stairs; about 16 percent say they have memory or concentration problems; over a third say they have a disability of some kind, and nearly 18 percent say they have multiple disabilities. […]

Declining health is becoming a major reason prime-age men are working less and less. The Bureau of Labor Statistics regularly asks people why they aren’t in the labor force. Of the 11.5 percent of prime-age men who aren’t employed or looking for a job, over half blame illness or disability. The rest are either retired, going to school, or performing housework.

In other words, fully 6 percent of American men between the ages of 25-54 feel that their minds or their bodies are too broken for them to work. This rate has nearly quadrupled since 1968, when only 1.6 percent of men felt the same way.

Please try to read the whole thing before commenting. Thanks

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 10:05 am

Comments

In 68 there were lots and lots of good paying, full time jobs open compared to today. That is an important factor.

Comment by DuPage Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 10:16 am
Loving God I hate reading posts like this. I just feel sad. I have a channel on my Pandora feed, the Pete Seeger station. I’m thinking of that Utah Phillips song, “All Used Up”, and the singers desire to contribute, to not be “all used up”.

Comment by Honeybear Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 10:17 am
Glad to see the article cites the research showing deaths in middle-aged American whites increasing, bucking the national and international trend. It’s obviously an issue people will jump to interpretations of, but the more you dig the more perplexing it gets. I don’t think there’s a remotely good or easy answer yet, and I think we need to work hard to understand it, because I think we’ll probably learn some important things in the process.

Comment by Threepwood Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 10:32 am
I’m glad this problem is getting some attention.

Comment by James Knell Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 10:42 am
That came up in the first hour of “On Point” on NPR this morning in the Trump supporter discussion. One of the guests pointed out during the discussion, that this may be why some of those men (referring to Rich’s post above) are Trump supporters- they feel left out of the system and betrayed by the government. I think it was around the half hour mark.

Comment by Anon221 Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 10:45 am
The policy we need most in this country is like a magic bullet for so many of our socioeconomic issues.

We need a universal basic income.

Comment by Anon Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 10:58 am
The military has noted a drop in the quality of recruits. I agree with Threepwood about declining life expectancy of whites. Something to think about whenever they bring up raising SS age.

Comment by Anotheretiree Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 10:59 am
Having reached the age of 55, many of the people I went to HS with are now staring their retirement years in the face.

I continue to be stunned at the difference in quality of life among those of us who went to college and those who chose not to.

We were the HS class of 1979, the tail end of what could be called boomers but yet none of my age group saw the so called “great years” that many baby boomers saw. Those of us who chose college have done so much better than our friends who felt they could follow their father’s footsteps and build a life on blue collar jobs.

I don’t know what the answer is but I know the issue is all too real for many.

Comment by Give Me A Break Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 11:11 am
I am absolutely concerned with the shortage of good-paying jobs for all people, and the social upheaval/emotional toll that has come from white men with less education not making as much as their fathers made or them seeing their economic status fall in relation to women and minorities. This needs attention from policymakers and not just demagogues like Trump.

That said… I feel like there is an elephant in the room being ignored in this piece. People claiming hard-to-prove stuff like back pain to get disability checks is a thing. And these guys talk about an increase in pain med usage and labor force drop out and don’t mention it?

There are low-skilled, lesser-educated males who see what they would make from working and what they can make sitting at home and collecting checks while getting pain meds that are addicting and temporarily emotionally uplifting and their cost-benefit analysis tells them to seek out disability instead of work.

The remedy for this is wages going up so dropping out doesn’t seem more appealing. We need to hike the minimum wage and we need to make union participation increase in the private sector to force upward pressures on U.S. wages. If we don’t I’m just not sure how sustainable our U.S. economy is with all the built up resentment against banks and corporations you are seeing in this campaign from voters of both parties.

Comment by hisgirlfriday Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 11:27 am
I think the current thinking is that it’s a lot of factors combined…but without much understanding of exactly how. The death of manufacturing jobs being one, but that shouldn’t single out whites. The “Trump Supporter” thing is another contributor they’re kicking around: Various “traditional” cultural ideas and positions of power, primarily those associated with whites, are eroding. Regardless of whether you think that’s good or bad, it does contribute to people feeling left out and threatened. That’s almost certainly not enough to explain what’s going on by itself, but maybe it’s a key piece. They’ve also found that this group is suffering disproportionately from health conditions and deaths that are socially and psychologically linked, like drug and alcohol abuse.

Comment by Threepwood Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 11:29 am
Spirits and confidence are broken among many men who, for whatever the reason, haven’t been able to integrate themselves into the workforce like most others or even get a productive start in life. It’s sad and troubling as I’m also going to guess that many of them are on their own and alone.

Comment by shytown Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 11:59 am
No matter how horrible it is to see, I am glad that the real unemployment rate situation is finally being outed. Addressing it is another matter. Read the new book “Evicted” by Matthew Desmond. In it he intelligently explores and documents the vicious cycle of soul crushing poverty–not enough available jobs–lack of family stability/support systems–bad money decisions often as a result of personal choices (drugs, alcohol)–difficulty in finding and keeping housing (even government programs that are set up to help/subsidize obviously have to have requirements and standards in place to protect other renters)– and how all these often combine or intersect to make it hard for people to keep a job even when they are fortunate enough to get hired in the first place.

Comment by Responsa Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 1:16 pm
“6 percent of American men between the ages of 25-54 feel that their minds or their bodies are too broken for them to work.”

I don’t think we can discount the laziness factor and that we are lazier than ever before in this society. This statistic is based upon how men answer a question or how they feel, not backed by scientific discovery of health problems. Yes, we are having more health problems as a society which also correlated with higher rates of obesity. I realize that some people are heavier or obese because of genetics or gut health, but the simple fact is, we are lazier as a society in just about all things.

Comment by Ahoy! Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 1:28 pm
Am I the only one who sees a corollation to the other item posted here today on choosing environmental protection over economic growth? A lot of the blue collar jobs went overseas, where employers belch all kinds of nasty stuff into the air and water, pay their employees cents on our dollar, and send the finished goods back to us in containers where we buy them because they are affordable and in many cases the only place we can buy them (US manufactured clothing or consumer electronics are rare). Hard to raise wages here and employ more people without productivity that is competitive in the world economy and with people who are sufficiently trained to be productive.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 1:56 pm
===There are low-skilled, lesser-educated males who see what they would make from working and what they can make sitting at home and collecting checks while getting pain meds that are addicting and temporarily emotionally uplifting and their cost-benefit analysis tells them to seek out disability instead of work.===

Some, maybe.

My best friend from high school became an apprentice electrician at 19. Wasn’t in a union, and did a lot of non-union work in construction. He learned mostly by doing the work, not by being trained by IBEW or some other reputable organization that understands safety, best practices, etc. My buddy just sort of learned how to do then found a way to make money doing it.

He spent so much time on ladders, probably wearing tennis shoes, that the arches on his feet are shot and he can barely walk. He’s only fifty but limps around like he’s 80. He’s not on pain meds and isn’t claiming a disability, but it’s hard not to see the toll of 30 years of manual labor.

Another friend is a laborer who does concrete work. He’s fifty too, and you should see his hands after 30 years of breaking rocks. No disability for him either, and he isn’t looking for it.

All they want to do is work, provide for their families and enjoy the dignity that comes from putting in an honest day’s labor. But their bodies aren’t cooperating anymore.

Comment by 47th Ward Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 2:31 pm
why was this not simply entitled, the shocking pain of the American worker? Disabled….. Men in 1968, 1.6% Women 1.8%
current Men 6% women 5.8% it’s big for both men and women. women seem to have become more physical, which makes sense, Title IX and all and have made better progress but both Men and Women are experiencing greater disability.

the bigger news is that women went from 40.2% taking care of the home to 14.5%, and men increased(sort of ) from 0.2% to 1.3%, thus showing how there are more women in the workplace. more competition for jobs.

The Feminine Mystique comes to mind……

Comment by Amalia Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 2:50 pm
When out of the widget business, Mrs Blue and I are going to write a book. It is going to be titled, “Some People Just Dont Want to Work”. Folks, over the last 30 years, we have cycled through hundreds of employees. Last year, we went thru 13 people to eventually fill one spot. The culprit…12 failed either a drug, or on the job alcohol tests. These are $45k + benefits jobs.

Comment by Blue dog dem Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 3:02 pm
===12 failed either a drug, or on the job alcohol tests===

On the job booze is bad, although many white collar folks do it. But if you’re testing for pot, maybe you should stop doing that. What they do after hours is nunya.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 3:24 pm
The article cites joint pain. Americans’ weight has also increased dramatically over this same period of time. I would be interested to know if there is an obesity link to the increase in pain.

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Comment by Joseph Thursday, Nov 3, 16 @ 2:43 am