They live with friends and relatives who help them get by.
That’s another gender element to this puzzle!
Eberstadt says US welfare is too generous
But how come single mothers’s LFP is so high?
Many are poor, get benefits, struggle to juggle care, yet continue to work at high rates.
Does it reflect benefit stinginess or what?
“Having a criminal record is a key missing piece in explaining why work rates and LFPRs have collapsed much more dramatically in America than other affluent Western societies”
- Eberstadt
[NB. his chapter on criminality provides zero data on other countries]
4 reasons to think incarcerations are to blame for blame joblessness:
1) The US has an unusually large population of ex/current felons (16m in 2004)
2) States with more felons have higher male joblessness
3) The probability of incarceration has massively increased
[Coinciding with rising male joblessness]
4a) Men with one or more incarceration are highly likely to be out of the labour force.
4b) Men with one or more incarceration are highly likely to be out of the labour force.
This holds for every ethnicity and educational background.
If rising convictions are a major cause of jobless, unmarried men,
I would be curious to know how this strong push for “law and order” relates to the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
Trade shocks reduce young adult males’ employment and earnings.
This leads to more unwed mothers and children in poor single parent families.
“The Impact of Economic Conditions on Participation in Disability Programs” shows that when labour demand is high, participation in disability programs falls.
This is consistent with an emphasis on labour demand.
Institutions matter.
Germany has seen a huge rise in robots but not job losses
Manufacturing is still very unionised, blue-collar wages are usually determined collectively with strong involvement of work councils.
The “problem” is not women’s first-order preferences nor dating apps.
Rather, as society liberalises, and there’s less compunction to get a boyfriend (let alone husband), women may think twice before staying with a guy who doesn’t measure up.
Only 3% of South Koreans said that family was a major source of meaning.
No wonder their birth rate is so low!!
I think part of this is that over the 20th century they worked insanely long hours, in order to match western productivity, and this may have broken family bonds.
Only 1% of Taiwanese emphasised romance.
This tracks. I went to one mall and one supermarket today, there are no valentines.
But there are thousands of celebrations of money
Only 3% of South Koreans mentioned friends and community as offering meaning…
Ironically, the most collectivist culture now appears the most individualist??