More miserable news for the average man.

Hanna Rosin: New data on the rise of women

The male job market is increasingly becoming a zero-sum game. I envy the days when solid middle class jobs were open to anyone who had a work ethic. It's miserable news like this which makes me want to opt out of even finding a wife and starting a family. I mean if a man can't fulfill his role as a provider, why bother? A wife may not need a strong provider, but children do. And I see no point to developing a long term relationship unless it's to have children. A man can get sex and companionship without investing in a relationship.

This woman has no idea what is coming.  Western economies are being financed with printed money.  This will end in this decade and then Western countries will resemble Mexico or Argentina where I can assure you that men have the advantage economically.  All those service jobs will disappear as people focus their spending on buying the necessities.

Your current job is a service job.  It will disappear.  You need to think about how you will make money when the system collapses.  You need a skill that has clear practical value.  People like farmers, car mechanics, technicians of various kinds, these are the people who will be the providers of the future.  The economy that you see today will soon disappear.  You need to prepare for the future.

Hmm...
In your opinion...will there be a place for Computer Scientists? Or rather as big a place as there is today?
Its not as real world as engineering, but not as ephemeral as Business etc.

fschmidt wrote

Your current job is a service job.  It will disappear.  You need to think about how you will make money when the system collapses.  You need a skill that has clear practical value.  People like farmers, car mechanics, technicians of various kinds, these are the people who will be the providers of the future.  The economy that you see today will soon disappear.  You need to prepare for the future.

Is that how it is in present day Argentina and Mexico?

Those headlines are not from some free media channel. They are written to enforce the idea that there is a battle between men and women. This talk is offensive and sickening. I respect women but not this one.
And this is the the video that makes me unsubscribe to TEDtalks.
As another commenter stated:"TED is the mouthpiece of the elite"

This was an interesting comment. Wouldn't it be in the genetic interest of elite men to support feminism thereby lowering the average mans value and increasing their own value on the sexual marketplace?

Ardia wrote

fschmidt wrote

Your current job is a service job.  It will disappear.  You need to think about how you will make money when the system collapses.  You need a skill that has clear practical value.  People like farmers, car mechanics, technicians of various kinds, these are the people who will be the providers of the future.  The economy that you see today will soon disappear.  You need to prepare for the future.

Is that how it is in present day Argentina and Mexico?

To be honest, I'm not sure.  What I do know is that men dominate the economy in these places.

Ardia wrote

Hmm...
In your opinion...will there be a place for Computer Scientists? Or rather as big a place as there is today?
Its not as real world as engineering, but not as ephemeral as Business etc.

I think so.  But mainstream programming has already been hurt by outsourcing and guest workers (at least in America).  I don't think this will change.

Ardia wrote

Wouldn't it be in the genetic interest of elite men to support feminism thereby lowering the average mans value and increasing their own value on the sexual marketplace?

Yes but once the middle class is destroyed, there isn't as much point to supporting feminism.  The elite can then have many mistresses based on economics as they do now in Mexico.

Hmm...
Any reason you say 'within this decade'?
I can get crazy laws and feminism weaken a country etc as a general trend, but why 'this decade' vs, say, 'sometime within the next 30 years (which is, ofc, inclusive of this decade).

This is more than a philosophical question.

For the twin problems with me moving to Asia are lack of interest in the females there, and the greatly lowered/different economic situation. Obviously having only one strike vs two against the idea strengthens it greatly.

I follow financial news quite closely because I invest.  All of the worlds major economies, America, Europe, and Japan, have been printing money to cover all bad debts.  Eventually this will fail.  There have been a sequence of economic crises over the last few decades because of this.  The last one was the biggest with all segments of the economy failing except the government (at least most governments).  It seems clear to me that in the next crisis, the governments will fail, meaning that the major currencies will be crushed.  I am not alone in this view.  Many major investors are betting on gold for this reason.  These crises tend to be 5 to 10 years apart, which is why I expect it to happen in this decade.

But even after the next crisis, the major economies will still be better off than most of Asia.  The world will be poorer and the wealth differences between countries will be reduced, but the major corporate headquarters will remain where they are now.  The major economies will recover to some degree after the crisis, but the middle class will never fully recover.

Anyway, that's my prediction, but the future is always uncertain.  I am changing my approach to investing based on this, and am moving my money from stocks and bonds into rental property, which is more removed from the global financial system.

So do you include asia and russia in this economic outlook? I'm a little worried because my family is nearly completely invested in stocks and bonds (with a good fraction in developing markets), and would be ruined if their portfolio value was crushed. I don't know what to say about this because I don't control those purse strings. But it worries me.

I also have to wonder -- if the middle class is wiped out, where does that leave me? I have a lot of college debt and would do poorly if I couldn't find a decent job.

There are all kinds of idiots trying to predict the economic future, and I'm not sure that I am better than them, but I have my opinions anyway.  Yes I include most of Asia and Russia in my outlook.  The world economy is quite globally linked these days.

There is no sure way to predict what will happen to stock and bonds, but at least you should tell your family that these are not safe assets and that many major investors like George Soros and John Paulson are betting against these asset classes.  Bonds are at risk because inflation could make them worthless.

The good news for you is that your college debt will be trivial to pay off with high inflation.  I don't know your field, so I don't know what your job prospects would be after a crash.

Drealm wrote

Hanna Rosin: New data on the rise of women

The male job market is increasingly becoming a zero-sum game. I envy the days when solid middle class jobs were open to anyone who had a work ethic. It's miserable news like this which makes me want to opt out of even finding a wife and starting a family. I mean if a man can't fulfill his role as a provider, why bother? A wife may not need a strong provider, but children do. And I see no point to developing a long term relationship unless it's to have children. A man can get sex and companionship without investing in a relationship.

I recall my grandfather telling me before about how when he was young, a man could have a high school education, a willingness to work, and that was that. He could have a regular job and pull a living wage quite easily. This was also back when decent men and providers were valued as well. This was back before the American way of life began to be bought on credit. A service economy cannot work for too long. In the future, having skills and knowledge will be valued. The age of useless degrees and the service economy is coming to an end.

Humanity wrote

I recall my grandfather telling me before about how when he was young, a man could have a high school education, a willingness to work, and that was that. He could have a regular job and pull a living wage quite easily. This was also back when decent men and providers were valued as well. This was back before the American way of life began to be bought on credit. A service economy cannot work for too long. In the future, having skills and knowledge will be valued. The age of useless degrees and the service economy is coming to an end.

Your grandfather's time is exactly what I desire. I'm twenty four right now. Back then by my age, I'd be married, have a solid job, have my own house and probably already have one child on the way. Take a look at circa 2010. I can't afford to move out and the only entry level jobs that pay decent, which don't require a degree are state and federal jobs that are overpaid by stealing from people like me.

The only way I see your grandfather's time coming back is if manufacturing comes back. But manufacturing will only return if a) tariffs are raised (not likely in free market america!), b) china get's unionized (yeah right), or c) oil spikes - causing increased transportation cost (more likely).

You're right a service economy will fail. The crucial question is how will it fail? And will it be good for us? I'm reading a book right now, which states that automation is a bigger threat than off shoring. Nearly every industry across the board has become more capital intensive and less labor intensive. This in the long run means there will be no one to buy anything because robots don't buy groceries. A precursor to the threat of automation actually occurred once in history. The precursor to the robot was the slave. In the southern states slaves had no purchasing power. If the southern economy had been insular from the beginning it would of starved itself. The only reason it thrived was because it was export driven. As soon as exports were blockaded, the economy did starve itself.

I think things aren't going to return to how they were in my Grandfather's younger days. The American economy boomed incredibly after WWII, and America's manufacturing base was enormous from the war. Now, I'm not saying that the world needs a third world war to boost the economy, but perhaps some way to combat out-sourcing/off-shoring and automation would be the better route. I don't think it will happen, but America needs to become self-efficient. A major step in getting there would be returning to a strong manufacturing base here at home. Many other things also need to change, and I see nothing of import happening to alter the course, so I'm not hopeful about America's future.

One wonders what will come first -- a serious shortage of oil, or economic ruination caused by the decimation of the middle class? There is already a huge problem of lower-class working men being shut out of the market and essentially falling into a life of crime to support themselves. So far the solution has been to lock these people up (i.e. band-aid over the problem). But places like California are already having to release milder prisoners due to financial problems. I don't want to know what things will be like when prisons become financially infeasible. I sure as hell hope I won't be anywhere nearby.

Running out of oil before a good alternative is found would result in a society of slaves. The wealthy would not give up their power and comfort without a fight. Everyone else will suffer. I sure hope alternatives are found beforehand.