The work ethic is such a central part of the American character that it's hard to imagine it fading. But that's what seems to be happening in one important part of the labor force. Among men aged 25 to 54 — so-called prime-age male workers — about 1 in 8 are dropouts. They don't have a job and, unlike the officially unemployed, aren't looking for one. They number about 7 million.
Just what role, if any, these nonworking men played in Donald Trump's election is unclear. What's not unclear is that these dropouts, after being ignored for years, have suddenly become a hot topic of scholarly study and political debate. There's been a sea change. In the mid-1960s, only 1 in 29 prime-age male workers was a dropout. The explosion of dropouts strikes many observers as dire.
The "detachment of so many adult American men from the reality and routines of regular paid labor ... can only result in lower living standards, greater economic disparities and slower economic growth," writes Nicholas Eberstadt of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "It is also a social crisis — and ... a moral crisis. The growing incapability of grown men to function as breadwinners cannot help but undermine the American family."
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