09.26.16
Not now, I’m playing a game. Then I’m going to watch porn
It’s a Grave Social Ill: The phenomenon of “unworking men” in America, first developed by Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute over the Labor Day weekend.
Millions of men, like me, undereducated, who won’t work and have dropped out of society. Economist Tyler Cowan jumped on it the following week, adding that it’s not only that the men are uneducated but that they are addicted to net porn, too.
And today the WaPost chimes in: It’s men who are addicted to video games. They won’t work!
“Izquierdo represents a group of video-game-loving Americans who, according to new research, may help explain one of the most alarming aspects of the nation’s economic recovery: Even as the unemployment rate has fallen to low levels, an unusually large percentage of able-bodied men, particularly the young and less-educated, are either not working or not working full-time …Yet in the new research, economists from Princeton, the University of Rochester and the University of Chicago say that an additional reason many of these young men – who don’t have college degrees — are rejecting work is that they have a better alternative: living at home and enjoying video games…”
An alarmist aspect and prospect!
Except Dean Baker blows it all up by noting the statistics don’t support any of itit. It’s not just “undereducated” men, like me, who have seen unemployment increases, it’s women, too. Oops.
It’s lack of demand in a sluggish, or stagnant American economy, Baker thinks. And the Post, like many of the swell leaders of our great corporate dictatorship, always has a detail ready to bayonet the wounded on the battlefield, because, you know, they deserve it:
As is widely known the Washington Post never misses an opportunity to blame the victims of policy for bad outcomes, rather than rich and powerful folks who design policy. We are treated to yet another example of this charade with the Post running a major article that claims that video games are a major reason that fewer young men are working today than 15 years ago.
He’s right, probably. Still, I kind of fancy being thought of as part of a demographic deemed a grave social ill.
Christoph Hechl said,
September 27, 2016 at 2:35 am
Since computer games are increasing in popularity worldwide and are slowly taking the place of tv shows or, in the case of MMO games, that of the local pub, this can’t come as a surprise.
In fact this is just an extremely negative and repulsive way of stating that more and more people play computer games.
George Smith said,
September 27, 2016 at 9:33 am
A few decades ago, an unemployed person might be stuck on the couch watching TV, isolated and depressed. Today, cheap or free services such as Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube and Netflix provide seemingly endless entertainment options and an easy connection to the outside world. Video games, in particular, provide a strong community and a sense of achievement that, for some, real-world jobs lack.
So it used to be I was isolated and depressed. Now I have a strong sense of community, except for last week, when I didn’t because I was all alone.
Mourato said,
October 4, 2016 at 2:48 pm
Statistics, and specially the dark arts of correlation can sometimes turn a batch of well characterized data into whatever you want.
Cut the women out the population data and alas! suddenly you can infer men don’t work because they stay at home playing video games (and of course watching porn between LOL rounds).
Way back when studying mathematics in University I particularly hated statistics and all is subspecies, sometime it was like a rochak test, some saw a butterfly some a dead tulip and some a red firefighter truck while all I saw was a ink blob.
keep rocking!