The Mancession: 16 Signs That This Economic Decline is Sucking the Life Out of the American Male
Posted by Wealth Wire - Wednesday, June 20th, 2012
This economic decline has been really hard on everyone, but it has been particularly hard on American men. During the last recession male employment dropped like a rock and it has not recovered much at all since then.
That is why many referred to the last recession as a "mancession".
Industries where men are disproportionately represented such as construction and manufacturing have really been hit hard in recent years. In the old days, you could take a high school education down to the local factory and get a job that would enable you to live a middle class lifestyle and support a growing family on just that one income. Sadly, those days are long gone. Today, American men live in a world where their labor is not really needed.
Wages are falling because almost any worker can be easily replaced by the vast pool of unemployed American workers that are currently searching for work, and a lot of big companies are shifting labor-intensive jobs overseas where workers only make a small fraction of what they make in the United States. American workers (especially those without much education) are considered to be expensive liabilities in a world where labor has become a global commodity. So the percentage of working age American men that have jobs is likely to continue to decline and wages are likely to continue to stagnate as well.
For many men, a long-term bout with unemployment can almost be worse than a major illness. It can be really hard to feel like a man when you don't have a job. Men often see themselves as filling the "provider" role, and when they aren't providing for their families self-esteem can fall through the floor. It is easy to feel worthless when there is no money coming in and your wife and your kids are looking at you with worry every single day.
As you read this, there are millions upon millions of unemployed men sitting at home with a glazed look in their eyes. When you talk with these men, many of them seem as though the life has been sucked right out of them.
As I wrote about recently, when you cannot find a job month after month after month people start to look at you differently. Some start to look at you with pity in their eyes, and others start to look at you with disgust in their eyes.
Most Americans don't really understand how much the economy has fundamentally changed, and many of them still believe that it shouldn't be too difficult to find a job in "the greatest economy on earth".
But things have changed. If you don't have a college education or some highly specialized skills then it is going to be exceedingly difficult to get a good paying job in this economy.
Unfortunately, finding a job is not going to be getting any easier. Times are hard now, but they are going to be getting a lot harder.
The following are 16 signs that this economic decline is sucking the life out of the American male....
#1 During the last recession, men lost twice as many jobs as women did.
#2 According to the Economic Policy Institute, the "real entry-level hourly wage for men who recently graduated from high school" has declined from $15.64 in 1979 to $11.68 last year.
#3 During the recent economic downturn millions of men saw their family finances get absolutely destroyed. According to the Federal Reserve, the median net worth of families in the United States declined "from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010".
#4 As you can see from the chart below, in the 1950s there were times when nearly 85 percent of all working age men had a job. Sadly, that number has stayed below 65 percent since the end of the last recession....
#5 More unemployed fathers than ever are staying at home with the kids. Over the past decade the number of "stay at home dads" has doubled.
#6 Prior to the recession, women accounted for approximately 45 percent of the workforce. Now, they account for 49.4 percent of the workforce.
#7 According to one new survey, 23 percent of all small business owners in America have gone for more than a year without pay. More than half of all small business owners are men.
#8 The decline in manufacturing jobs has had a disproportionate impact on men. Back in 1940, 23.4% of all American workers had manufacturing jobs. Today, only10.4% of all American workers have manufacturing jobs.
#9 More than half of all middle management jobs in America are now held by women.
#10 More than half of all health care jobs in America are now held by women.
#11 American men love to watch television. But because of harsh economic conditions more families than ever are eliminating cable television service. According to one survey, a whopping 6.9 million American homes cancelled cable service last year.
#12 According to the New York Times, approximately 57 percent of all Americans that are currently enrolled in college are women.
#13 According to one study, between 1969 and 2009 the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 dropped by 27 percent after you account for inflation.
#14 According to another study, "young, urban, childless women" make more money in America today than young, urban, childless men do.
#15 According to CNN, in the United States today men in the 25 to 34 age bracket are nearly twice as likely to live with their parents as women the same age are....
The number of adult children who live with their parents, especially young males, has soared since the economy started heading south. Among males age 25 to 34, 19% live with their parents today, a 5 percentage point increase from 2005, according to Census data released Thursday. Meanwhile, 10% of women in that age group live at home, up from 8% six years ago.
#16 Our system often treats elderly American men like absolute trash. Just check out what happened to one elderly veteran up in Montana recently....
Warren C. Bodeker is an 89 year old World War II Army Airborne combat veteran and war hero, living in Montana, who is being thrown off of his own land and thrown out of his own house, by Montana Federal Bankruptcy Trustee, Christy Brandon, with the approval of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Montana. And to make matters worse, Warren’s wife Lorna just died of cancer this past year, and is buried there on their land, right next to the house. Warren had planned to live there till he died and then be buried right next to his wife, there on their property at 11 Freedom Lane, in the town of Plains, Montana, but now, not only is he being forced off his land, he is being forced to exhume his wife’s body and take her with him.
As the ability of men (and women) to take care of their families continues to decline, the middle class continues to shrink rapidly.
Most Americans continue to expect our economy to be able to bounce back to where it was before, but the truth is that the U.S. economy is in the midst of a long-term decline.
We are heading for an absolute economic nightmare, and we desperately need to come together as a nation and find some real solutions.
Unfortunately, our nation is becoming more divided than ever, and most of our politicians are proposing that we continue to do the exact same things that got us into this mess.
So what do all of you think about "the mancession" and what this economic decline is doing to the American male? Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below....
*Post courtesy of the Economic Collapse Blog.
Republican and democrat politicians in the U.S. in fact has long been very subdued, and as dogs and slaves became leaders of AIPAC ... and always propagate hostility toward Iran and Syria ... and as if waging war and chaos in the Middle East and Muslim world .. especially at large ..
Greed and the desire to dominate the West against the Muslim countries is very real ..
Israel made of stone and trigger a new war in the Middle East with nuclear isue2 Shia sentiment and division and Sunny ...?
See... What they doing so far.....
UN leader ‘regrets’ Iran nuclear deadlock..
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. — Photo Reuters
UNITED NATIONS: UN leader Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday expressed regret at the failure to make progress at nuclear talks between Iran and the main international powers and called for a new “intensity” of efforts to avoid a showdown.
Ban “regrets” that Iran’s talks with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and United States “were unable to reach agreement on concrete and reciprocal measures at their meeting in Moscow,” his spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
The Moscow meeting on Tuesday produced only an accord to hold new technical and political talks on accusations by the United States and its allies that Iran seeks to develop a nuclear bomb. Iran denies the charge.
The UN secretary general hopes that “the parties strengthen their resolve to quickly achieve a negotiated solution that restores international confidence in an Iranian nuclear program that could be deemed exclusively peaceful.”
He appealed to both sides “to resume their diplomatic engagement with renewed intensity and with the utmost flexibility.”
The talks have been held amid speculation that Israel or the United States could launch a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Israel: "all options" open after Iran talks fail
Published on Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 09:36 | Source : Reuters
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -
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Israel responded on Wednesday to a lack of progress in talks aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear programme by demanding that the West impose stiffer economic sanctions on Tehran and hinting anew that a military option was still on the table.
Six world powers and Iran failed to secure a breakthrough at talks in Moscow this week, the third round under the latest diplomatic initiative, and set no date for more political negotiations.
"It is time for the United States and Western powers to impose more severe sanctions in the oil embargo and financial sectors in order to stop Iran's nuclear development programme,"
Vice Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz of the centrist Kadima party said in a written statement after talks in Washington with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Mofaz, a former defence minister and military chief, said that in addition to economic steps there was a need "to continue to prepare all other options", an oblique suggestion that a military attack to prevent Iran developing a nuclear weapon remained a possible course of action.
While Western powers suspect Iran of trying to develop the capacity to build a nuclear bomb, Iran says its nuclear programme is destined for energy production alone.
Before reports of the Moscow talks breaking up, Mofaz was quoted as telling reporters in Washington that any use of military power "should be the last option, and I believe that this option should be led by the U.S. and the Western countries".
Mofaz heads the largest party in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-leaning ruling coalition, since the two leaders forged a partnership last month to avoid threats by their opponents to seek an early election.
Western concern that Israel, which regards Iran's atomic project as an existential threat given its calls for the demise of the Jewish state, might resort to force has fuelled efforts to continue discussions with Tehran.
Technical talks with Iran have been scheduled for July 3 in Istanbul, but no further political talks have been agreed, and some experts have said the risk of war will increase unless diplomacy is renewed.
Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle East country with nuclear weapons.
On his four-day visit to the U.S. capital, Mofaz is also seeking U.S. help in arranging a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to try to renew peace talks deadlocked since 2010 over Jewish settlement building in occupied territory. (Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
U.S. Urged to Confront Iran on Nuclear Work
By MARK LANDLER
Published: June 20, 2012
WASHINGTON — With high-stakes negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program at an impasse, the Obama administration is under mounting pressure to rethink a diplomatic exercise that many argue is simply stringing along the rest of the world.
Maxim Shipenkov/European Pressphoto Agency
Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief negotiator, at a news conference Tuesday after talks ended in Moscow.
Multimedia
Related
Times Topic: Iran's Nuclear Program (Nuclear Talks, 2012)
After two days of fruitless talks in Moscow, negotiators for the United States and other major powers did not even schedule another high-level meeting with Iran, committing only to a lower-level session in July to go over the technical details of a proposal to suspend the enrichment of uranium that Iran has already rejected in principle.
Dennis B. Ross, a former senior White House adviser on Iran, said he believed the negotiations had become a trap, allowing Iran to continue enriching nuclear fuel while the two sides fail to agree on even interim measures to slow the Iranian program. The major powers, he said, should scrap the step-by-step approach in favor of a comprehensive deal that would test Iran’s sincerity, but could also hasten a military confrontation.
“The issue here is, ‘How do you deal with a process that’s going to be harder and harder to justify?’ ” said Mr. Ross, who left the administration in December and is now a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “If it looks like you’re engaging in a process for the sake of process, that’s a bigger problem.”
Other critics are even blunter, labeling the talks a “charade” and demanding that Congress pass another round of sanctions against Iran. On Friday, 44 Republican and Democratic senators sent a letter to President Obama urging him to abandon the negotiations if the Moscow meeting failed to produce any concessions from Iran.
“Talks are going slowly but Iran’s centrifuges are moving quickly,” said Representative Brad Sherman, a California Democrat and member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who has taken a tough line against Tehran.
Mr. Sherman said the United States should impose sanctions against all of Iran’s banks that go beyond unilateral measures aimed at cutting off its Central Bank. Those measures, which will take effect at the end of the month, could still cause a change of heart on the part of the Iranians, administration officials say.
These officials acknowledge that there are deep gaps between the two sides and no sign yet that the Iranians have made a genuine decision to bargain. But with the banking sanctions and a European Union oil embargo about to take effect, they insist that the step-by-step approach is worth pursuing a while longer.
At the working-level meeting, on July 3 in Istanbul, officials said they would seek further details on an Iranian proposal made in Moscow that left Western diplomats puzzled. The proposal was made in response to the demand that Iran suspend its enrichment of uranium to 20 percent, ship out its existing stockpile of that uranium and shut down its heavily fortified Fordo enrichment facility near the holy city of Qum.
While the Iranian offer made reference to 20 percent uranium, it was, in the words of a senior administration official, “elliptical.” And even though the diplomats met for hours on Monday and Tuesday, the official said there was not enough time to determine whether the Iranian offer held the prospect for progress.
“Iran submitted a good proposal to them,” Mohammad Reza Bahonar, a senior member of Iran’s Parliament, said at a news conference in Tehran.
Iranian officials and commanders reiterated that they would never relinquish what they called Iran’s nuclear rights. Some asserted that not only was Iran impervious to Western threats but was also poised to prosper economically, despite evidence that the sanctions could cripple its ability to sell oil, its financial lifeline.
Such assertions do not mask the economic pain that analysts said was about to fall on Iran with the imposition of the oil sanctions. To some experts, that is reason enough to allow the diplomatic process to grind on.
“It looks hopeless now, but let’s not blind ourselves with our own rational Western culture,” said Cliff Kupchan, an Iran analyst at the Eurasia Group, a consulting firm. “This is a trading culture. It can turn on a dime.”
Mr. Ross, in an article published in The New Republic, argued that the major powers should skip all these steps and offer the Iranians a civil nuclear power capacity that would be limited and monitored in a way that would not allow Iran to develop a weapon. If Iran rejected that offer, he said, it would clarify Tehran’s intentions.
Shifting to such an approach, Mr. Ross said, would also assuage the doubts of the Israelis, who say the Iranians are using the talks to buy time while they enrich fuel to use in bombs. And it would give the West sounder justification for a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, since Tehran’s ultimate goal would no longer be ambiguous.
“For them to really feel they need to reach an agreement, they need to know that if diplomacy fails, the pressure is on them,” Mr. Ross said in a telephone interview from Israel, where he was meeting with Israeli officials.
Mr. Ross said he worried that the calendar, which initially worked against Iran because of the sanctions, was now in its favor. In particular, he said, the Iranians appeared to be calculating that Mr. Obama wanted to keep diplomacy going until after Election Day on Nov. 6. “They read the 6th as us not wanting diplomacy to fail,” he said.
Though Mr. Ross keeps lines to former colleagues at the White House, he has not persuaded the administration to change course. A senior administration official said pursuing a comprehensive deal would take months of negotiation, during which time Tehran would continue to enrich uranium. Agreeing on interim steps could freeze Iran’s enrichment sooner.
“Time is problematic,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. “As time moves on, it gets more problematic.”
A version of this article appeared in print on June 21, 2012, on page A11 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. Urged to Confront Iran on Nuclear Work.
The new Zionist air raid on Gaza back to kill and injure
Palestinian Muslim
Siraaj, Thursday , June 21, 2012 09:22:05
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