This is CBSI on the world.

I'm John Batchel with Nicholas Eberstadt.

His reissue of his Men Without Work, which was published in the middle of the second decade

of the 21st century.

We're now in the third decade, and we've survived the pandemic that put everyone out of work momentarily.

Nick provides a chapter of some things that we can see that maybe change the argument,

maybe do not.

Nick, one of the things that I'm struck by right now again and again is these numbers are

changing not only for men, but also for women.

Do I read you correctly?

That women without work is a rising category.

Yes.

Well, unfortunately, the men without work problem that I described in the first edition is worse now than it was then. You could

almost draw a straight line from 1965 to the first edition of the book to where we are now

six years later. It's kind of uncanny. But it looks as if other population groups may also be joining this flight from work, including

people who are older Americans, 55 plus, 65 plus, and now we're seeing some, I think, warning

signs for prime age women.

I don't want to say it's a red flashing light, but maybe a

yellow flashing light. Is it a shock or is it a shift of the labor force? Nick asked that

question. What is the China shock? How would that contribute to the unknowns? Well, the

China, the first China shock was the China entering the World Trade Organization, which

provided an avenue for Chinese manufacturing and low-cost goods into our economy, did a lot

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