According to Eberstadt, among unemployed men, there are three who are not looking for work for every one trying to find a job.
As Nicholas Eberstadt wrote last week in the Washington Post, there are 7 million American men between 25 and 54 who are not working—or even trying to find a job.
While it has been true for years, this is a radical change at the core of American culture and society.
Historically, work has been central to the American experience. People who migrated to America expected to work. Thanksgiving emerged among the pilgrims after a year of hard work. The wagon trains which carried American civilization west required a lot of work. The great American arsenal of democracy flooded the world with the weapons to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan—thanks to the work of millions of Americans.
President Ronald Reagan often said “work is the best social program.”
As Marvin Olasky wrote in his 1992 book “The Tragedy of American Compassion,” President Lyndon Johnson and his Great Society broke the connection between work and fulfillment. As Olasky described, the traditional reformers all believed in tough love for the poor. They envisioned a system in which people were expected to work—and show discipline and restraint with alcohol, drugs, and indolence.
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