Work, purpose, and declining labor-force attachment

“It's certainly clear that the issues of boys and men haven't gone away in the last few years. If anything, they're getting even more attention, which is good when it's the right kind of attention.” The conversation around masculinity is a political battlefield, devolving into extreme caricaturization: uncritical celebration or outright demonization. Where does the nuance of this discussion live? Richard Reeves argues that this binary leaves out the real story: how changing economies, shifting cultural expectations, and the absence of strong male role models have left many young men without a clear path forward. 0:00 Blaming young men 1:24 Rethinking how we talk about masculinity 2:45 The rise in male deaths from drugs 3:17 The male rate of suicide 4:14 Male representation in different professions 6:10 Men and purpose 6:52 Median annual earnings of men 8:54 Men and the “get rich quick” scheme 10:31 Online gambling addiction 12:15 What does non-toxic masculinity look like? 13:17 Policy for young males 14:46 Male support systems 19:08 GPA distribution amongst boys and girls ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Richard Reeves: Richard V. Reeves is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he directs the Future of the Middle Class Initiative and co-directs the Center on Children and Families. His Brookings research focuses on the middle class, inequality and social mobility. Richard writes for a wide range of publications, including the New York Times, Guardian, National Affairs, The Atlantic, Democracy Journal, and Wall Street Journal. He is the author of Dream Hoarders (Brookings Institution Press, 2017), and John Stuart Mill – Victorian Firebrand (Atlantic Books, 2007), an intellectual biography of the British liberal philosopher and politician. Dream Hoarders was named a Book of the Year by The Economist, a Political Book of the Year by The Observer, and was shortlisted for the Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice. In September 2017, Politico magazine named Richard one of the top 50 thinkers in the U.S. For his work on class and inequality. A Brit-American, Richard was director of strategy to the UK’s Deputy Prime Minister from 2010 to 2012. Other previous roles include director of Demos, the London-based political think-tank; social affairs editor of the Observer; principal policy advisor to the Minister for Welfare Reform, and research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research. Richard is also a former European Business Speaker of the Year and has a BA from Oxford University and a PhD from Warwick University.

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