President Trump wants to get America’s vast army of “dropout” men back into the workforce. Attention to this problem is long overdue.
Nearly 7 million men in the prime of life — over a tenth of the 25-to-54 age group — are neither working nor looking for work these days.
But Team Trump is trying to fix the problem with the wrong tools.
They argue that trade policy — tariffs — and industrial policy — special treatment for manufacturing — will reverse the long-term flight from work by men, by creating high-paying jobs to lure them back to work.
This approach may sound sensible to some. Unfortunately, it is likely to fail — even though the White House could succeed through other pro-work policies.
Once upon a time in America, working-age men without jobs were unemployed laborers.
But that’s ancient history: Today, for every “prime age” man who is actually unemployed — out of a job but looking — there are three who are neither working nor looking for work.
That means the overwhelming majority of jobless men nowadays are NILFs (for “not in labor force”). And unemployed men differ fundamentally in both mindset and behavior from NILF men.
The former consider themselves part of the labor force; the latter do not.
The former generally respond to labor market incentives; the latter generally do not.
Thus, while unemployed men tend to be out of work for just a few weeks, NILF men tend to be long-termers — often lifers.
Furthermore, only a tiny minority of NILF men say they are jobless because they could not find work. Even during recessions, most give other reasons.
Incentivizing helplessness
Let the dems send them to Ukraine to fight.
Cut off their freebies……………..they will work!