4/4: Men Without Work: Post-Pandemic Edition (2022) (New Threats to Freedom Series) by Nicholas Eberstadt (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
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🗓️ 28 December 2022
⏱️ 8 minutes
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4/4: Men Without Work: Post-Pandemic Edition (2022) (New Threats to Freedom Series) by Nicholas Eberstadt (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/Men-Without-Work-Post-Pandemic-Threats/dp/1599475979
Nicholas Eberstadt’s landmark 2016 study, Men Without Work, cast a spotlight on the collapse of work for men in modern America. Rosy reports of low unemployment rates and “full or near full employment” conditions, he contends, were overlooking a quiet, continuing crisis: Depression-era work rates for American men of “prime working age” (25–54).
In a brand new introduction, Eberstadt explains how the government’s response to Covid-19 inadvertently exacerbated the flight from work in America. From indiscriminate pandemic shutdowns to almost unconditional “unemployment” benefits, Americans were essentially paid not to work.
Given the devastating economic impact of the Covid calamity and the unforeseen aftershocks yet to come, this reissue of Eberstadt’s groundbreaking work is timelier than ever.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBS I In The World. I'm John Batch with Nicholas Everstad. His reissue of his |
| 0:11.3 | men without work, which was published in the middle of the second decade of the 21st |
| 0:15.5 | century. We're now in the third decade and we've survived the pandemic that put everyone |
| 0:22.9 | out of work momentarily. Nick provides a chapter of some things that we can see that maybe |
| 0:29.1 | change the argument, maybe do not. Nick, one of the things that I'm struck by right now, again |
| 0:35.3 | and again, is these numbers are changing not only for men, but also for women. Do I read you |
| 0:41.5 | correctly that women without work is a rising category? Yes, well, unfortunately, the men without |
| 0:50.0 | work problem that I described in the first edition is worse now than it was then. You could almost |
| 0:58.6 | draw a straight line from 1965 to the first edition of the book, two where we are now six years |
| 1:06.8 | later. It's kind of uncanny, but it looks as if other population groups may also be joining this |
| 1:14.0 | flight from work, including people who are older Americans, 55 plus, 65 plus, and now we're seeing |
| 1:23.2 | some, I think, warning signs for prime age women. I don't want to say it's a red flashing light, |
| 1:29.7 | but maybe a yellow flashing light. Is it a shock or is it a shift of the labor force? Nick asked |
| 1:36.7 | that question, what is the China shock? How would that contribute to the unknown? Well, the China, |
| 1:43.9 | the first China shock was the China entering the World Trade Organization, which provided an |
| 1:54.0 | avenue for Chinese manufacturing and low cost goods into our economy did a lot of things to |
| 2:00.5 | lower inflation in the US, but it also wreaked havoc on our manufacturing sector over the course |
| 2:07.2 | of a few years and changed our manufacturing patterns, including work. We've had a China shock |
| 2:15.8 | with COVID as well, and that brought us to the brink of a global economic collapse with the |
| 2:25.6 | shutdowns that you described. And we also have right now an introduction to, I think it's called |
| 2:33.6 | universal base basic income, UBI, which is a debate in our allies. You note that the supplementary |
| 2:42.8 | checks that were from the Trump administration, the Biden administration, serve as that, but |
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