How Do We Reverse the Cycle?
According to a study by David H. Autor, a professor at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology, and Melanie Wasserman, one of the reasons that many men are be struggling in the workplace may be their family situation when growing up. According to this study (which can be found HERE), sons raised by single mothers fare poorly in the job market. This is bad enough, of course, but the problem may actually compound itself. If the sons of single mothers struggle economically, they are less desirable as husbands, so women are choosing to raise kids alone, which creates more fatherless boys, and so on.
This study was discussed in many of the usual outlets, Left and Right, from the NYTimes to the National Review. While there seems to be an emerging consensus that this is occurring, the question remains, what do we do about it? The Left seems to want an economic solution, more jobs and higher-paying for low-skilled workers. This doesn’t seem to be working, our economy is sputtering at all levels. The Right wants a social solution, increasing participation by fathers, or decreasing out-of-wedlock births for mothers. This makes a certain amount of sense, but the way they are are executing it, by shaming single mothers as “selfish” or “sluts” or “welfare dependents” and shaming fathers as “deadbeat dads,” isn’t working, not to mention, it’s just plain mean.
So what do we do? What will work? I don’t know, and I’m not angling for the answer I want to hear, that matches my political view, because I don’t know the answer. But the question seems a central one to our mission at Good Men Project and to our functioning as a society and economy.
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