S2E89 The Invisible Crisis with Nicholas Eberstadt
The Brian Buffini Show
Brian Buffini
4.8 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 8 November 2022
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Doing meaningful work is part of the good life but, in today’s post-pandemic world, millions of Americans are neither working nor looking for work. In this episode, economist and author Nicholas Eberstadt examines what happened to the famed American work ethic and why so many people are checked out of the workforce, even as businesses everywhere seek help.
YOU WILL LEARN:
· Why work is so important.
· How a ‘flight from work’ affects the economy, culture and society.
· What can be done to improve the situation.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
“Men Without Work: Post-Pandemic Edition,” by Nicholas Eberstadt
“The Emigrant Edge,” by Brian Buffini
“Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy,” by Joseph Schumpeter
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:
“Work is a service to others that helps to complete you. It's part of our connection to our world. It's part of our connection to society, to family.” – Nicholas Eberstadt
“Leisure is when you use your free time to restore yourself or to uplift yourself. You can also use leisure in ways that's terribly destructive, that’s degrading.” – Nicholas Eberstadt
“We need entrepreneurs because we need to have the dynamic churn that provides the creative destruction, that puts all of the pieces and all of the ingredients in our economy to work in a more productive manner.” – Nicholas Eberstadt
“The most important thing is persistence. And it's being ready to get back up the 101st time after you've fallen down 100 times. That is the most important habit that successful people all share.” – Nicholas Eberstadt
“Part of the good life is good work.” – Brian Buffini
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to It's a Good Life, where it's all about helping entrepreneurs think, feel, and |
| 0:07.6 | do better. |
| 0:08.6 | Before we begin, I want to tell you about It's a Good Life Plus, our new ad-free subscription |
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| 0:15.2 | All you've got to do is open the Apple Podcast app and click on It's a Good Life. |
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| 0:24.7 | It's just five bucks a month, and there's even a free trial. |
| 0:28.3 | Either way, continue listening to It's a Good Life and sharing the show with others. |
| 0:32.9 | And here's our man, Brian Bafini. |
| 0:40.4 | Top of the morning and welcome to It's a Good Life. |
| 0:43.2 | I have a very special guest for us today on a subject very close to our heart here at |
| 0:48.1 | It's a Good Life. |
| 0:49.1 | His name is Nicholas Iberstadt, and he's a political economist. |
| 0:53.3 | He holds the Henry Wentht Chair at the American Enterprise Institute and is author of over |
| 0:57.5 | 20 books and monographs. |
| 0:59.7 | The latest of which is Men Without Work, the Post-Pandemic Edition. |
| 1:04.3 | I've been following Nicholas's work for many, many years now, and I'm excited to share |
| 1:08.9 | this interview with you. |
| 1:10.1 | We all know the stats, the 11 million open jobs, people working from home, people leaving |
| 1:15.5 | the workforce, all of these different issues, and there's lots of theories. |
| 1:19.7 | But Nicholas has been studying this for years and years before the pandemic. |
| 1:25.1 | And I believe what we'll talk about today is how the pandemic exposed this even further |
... |
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