meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The John Batchelor Show

HOW MUCH OF THE TRAGEDY IS FENTANYL ETC? 1/4: Men Without Work: Post-Pandemic Edition (2022) (New Threats to Freedom Series)

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2024

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

HOW MUCH OF THE TRAGEDY IS FENTANYL ETC? 1/4: Men Without Work: Post-Pandemic Edition (2022) (New Threats to Freedom Series)

https://www.amazon.com/Men-Without-Work-Americas-

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).
The grim truth: over six million prime-age men were neither working nor looking for work. Conventional unemployment measures ignored these labor force dropouts, but their ranks had been rising relentlessly for half a century. Eberstadt’s unflinching analysis was, in the words of The New York Times, “an unsettling portrait not just of male unemployment, but also of lives deeply alienated from civil society.”
The famed American work ethic was once near universal: men of sound mind and body took pride in contributing to their communities and families. No longer, warned Eberstadt. And now—six years and one catastrophic pandemic later—the problem has not only worsened: it has seemingly been spreading among prime-age women and workers over fifty-five.
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

1929 BLACKFRIDAY NYC

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is a

0:05.0

This is CBS Eye on the World.

0:08.0

Here's John Bachelor.

0:10.0

Men without work.

0:13.0

I welcome Nicholas Aberstout of the American Enterprise Institute

0:17.0

to help me understand his book published some years before

0:21.0

and now republished with a post-pandemic note from the author about

0:27.0

what we learn from these years of statistics about men without work.

0:32.2

I will transfer my thinking immediately to a metaphor that Nick uses in the course of his presentation.

0:38.0

A Ghost Army. Nick, congratulations again for updating your observations of the middle of this second

0:47.0

decade of the 21st century.

0:48.8

We're now plunged into the third decade and after the pandemic there are lessons here that are fresh.

0:56.0

We're going to begin however with what is the ghost army?

1:00.0

What do you mean by that?

1:01.0

Thank you, Nick.

1:02.0

John, thank you so much for inviting me on.

1:05.0

The Ghost Army are the men without work in modern America.

1:12.0

I'm focusing in particular on what are called the men of

1:15.9

prime working age, not my term, 25 to 54 years old, the backbone of the economy still, the group that is absolutely

1:27.6

indispensable in the forming of families and the raising of children as well.

1:35.1

For over half a century, we have seen a collapse of work for this critical group, mainly due to an exit of men from the workforce altogether.

1:50.0

And as we speak, John, over 7 million men between the ages of 25 and 54 are out of the workforce altogether, neither working nor looking for work.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.