Excessive Ease

Among the less-discussed societal trends of recent years is the “drop out dude,” the able-bodied working-age male who doesn’t bother to work. Most of us know some such, either first-hand or at some modest degree of separation. In some cases, their means of support is evident, whether it be inheritance, parents who haven’t kicked him out of the house, public assistance, some form of “gaming the system” (one example I know of has figured out the disability long con), or a combination. In other cases, it’s a mystery.

Such slackers have always existed at the fringes of society. In present day, however, their numbers have grown beyond a fringe curiosity. Something like seven million men who are perfectly capable of working have opted not to. Since they aren’t looking for work, they are definitionally not part of the labor force, and therefor not unemployed, as far as the US labor statisticians are concerned. So, the breathless unemployment rate reports regurgitated without explanation by the various talking heads don’t even consider these coasters.

There are many problems in having seven million slackers among us. Those who rely on public assistance overburden taxpayers and misallocate tax dollars that are meant for those in actual need. Those who rely on others’ wealth sap the productive power of that wealth, harming economic growth and slowing the advancement of our living standards. Those who are spending down their inheritances are depriving the economy of productive capital.

To this libertarian, the notion of coercing them to work is utter anathema. That said, I’ve never had a problem with “workfare,” i.e. imposing work requirements the able-bodied who receive public assistance. Idealistic do-gooders cry in horror at this notion, on some incredibly naive presumption that only the truly needy will avail themselves of welfare. The more cynical ‘redistributors’ turn a blind eye to the able-bodied freeloaders, because they know those freeloaders are apt to vote for them.

It’s not enough, however, to conclude that “because they can” is sufficient explanation for why seven million able-bodied men have dropped out of the labor force. The more I think about it, the more I believe that this is a product of modern progressivism’s antagonistic message. In carrying on endlessly about “toxic masculinity,” pressing feminism as a zero-sum battle of the sexes, and putting men at the bottom of the grievance hierarchy, modern woke culture has sent a clear message: “Men” are neither needed nor wanted. The traditional roles of provider, defender, and caretaker are now various forms of “bad.” Men are expected to reject their predilections toward those roles. Boys are getting the “boy” exorcised out of them via constant berating, and with chemicals if berating proves insufficient.

This takes away their basic sense of purpose, and is a perfect prescription for depression and nihilism. Many pundits have discussed this problem, and have been recipients of nasty retorts and name-calling from the Best-and-Brightest who created this problem.

But I fear that this additional reason is still not enough to fully explain the phenomenon. “Fear,” because the third part is one that I don’t see as resolvable without pain.

That third part is that we are victims of our success. That life has been made too easy by humanity’s progress.

Evolution instilled many behaviors in us. Since getting enough food to survive every day was job one for most of the hundred thousand years that humans have walked the earth, we have “efficiencies” wired into us. High calorie foods are tastier, and minimizing physical effort so as to conserve the calories we managed to gather is preferred. So, we have laziness wired into our DNA.

We have other encoded instincts, fortunately, and “laziness” in times of stress is more accurately called efficiency, as I mentioned above. Parents changing diapers are likely to figure out how to do so as quickly as possible, given the finite hours in the day and the zillion other tasks they have on their plates. Take away those demands, and life gets easier. But, if all the demands are taken away, what’s left to propel productive behavior? And, if the things that we are instinctively inclined to do are conditioned out of us, what then?

Yes, this is in part an argument supporting traditional gender roles. With the caveat that any individual should, and indeed must, be free to pursue his or her own happiness. Live your life as you wish. Where we fail is when we tell people that they are wrong in leaning into those traditional behaviors. When women who want to be home-makers and family-raisers are deemed traitors to the cause of modern feminism. Men are told they are of no use to modern society unless they abandon their desires to be producers, providers, and protectors.

But it’s also a lament about how our great success in escaping subsistence living, in producing so much wealth that we have ample leisure time and disposable income, even after government robs us of a lot of both via its regulation and taxation, has enabled the divisive and derogatory messaging that produces misery, dissatisfaction, and loss of purpose.

Some of you are familiar with this bit:

Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.

We are, I fear, on the cusp of parts three and four. The growth of the slacker class is one big telltale. The growth of the “snowflake” phenomenon,” some people’s inability to hear a contrary opinion or even words they may not like without turning into a sky-screaming, quivering mess, is another. The “narcissism of small differences” phenomenon, wherein people get into huge fights over things that outsiders see as trivial, is a product of too much free time and too few real worries. If you aren’t spending all your waking hours pursuing food, clothing, and shelter, you’ve got the time to get agitated about pronouns or your neighbor’s too-infrequent lawn mowing.

The “hard times…” quote is from a post-apocalyptic novel by G. Michael Hopf. While I’m not inclined to conclude that our current slide from good times/weak men to hard times will be apocalyptic in nature, I do fear that we will endure a significant degradation in our living standards before our sense of purpose returns to prompt us toward the next upswing.

That this degradation is being aggressively accelerated by our government’s ruinous “green” energy policy, by the perpetual scolding of the most highly educated among us, and by an abandonment of “good for the country” mindset in favor of cynical partisan games and naked lust for power in our ruling class is its own tragedy.

What can we do? Not a lot, I’m afraid - the messaging that has driven us to a seven million strong slacker force has been decades in the making, and I don’t see recovering those generations absent a massive shakeup and pullback of public assistance. Good luck getting elected on that platform. But, we can reject the progressive war on “men” and challenge those who blather out “toxic masculinity” any time they see a guy holding a door for a woman. Culture wars are not just top-down. They can be bottom-up as well, and every person who can be rescued from blind thrall to the narrative of divisiveness is a victory.

Politicians and economists often talk of a “soft landing” in times of economic stress. By that they mean and hope that the inevitable recession - and the business cycle has yet to be circumvented by any gaggle of Best-and-Brightest - after a period of growth will be a mild one. Likewise, I hope that, if we push back against the things that are enhancing the slide to hard times, we can elevate the inevitable bottom.

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