Click it to enlarge and read. Last paragraph there needs a highlight:
The chief effect of the departure of large numbers of people from the labor force is to reduce the U.S. economy’s growth potential.
There is an implication that personal value hinges on labor force participation aimed at boosting "the U.S. economy's growth potential." Something like that. Gainful employment.
A seemingly okay point to advance in presenting hypotheses. Later, same item:
“There’s all these great things going on, but people don’t know about them, in different parts of the state and industry,” said Kathy Kersten, senior fellow for the center. “We’d like to be a vector for these success stories.”
In one effect of the departure of people from the workforce, Eberstadt said his research found that unemployed men spend a significant portion of each day in leisure activities, including time spent with video games and in front of computers and smartphones. “It’s a 2,100-hour-a-year proposition. Akin to a full-time job for the unworking man,” Eberstadt said.
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| This link. Public art in Seattle's Business district. "The hammering man hammers his hammer three times a minute," that site explains. |
“The turnaround comes when people are committed to shining the spotlight on this problem, and come from all over the political spectrum and say this huge problem can’t be invisible anymore,” Eberstadt said.
That sets the table. The Strib item links to a Commentary item by Mr. Eberstadt, conveniently behind a paywall or a subscription wall, but the opening blurb says enough; more terminology, first two sentences of four:
On the morning of November 9, 2016, America’s elite—its talking and deciding classes—woke up to a country they did not know. To most privileged and well-educated Americans, especially those living in its bicoastal bastions, the election of Donald Trump had been a thing almost impossible even to imagine.
Hammering man is unprivileged and being made of steel he is uneducated, but he hammers. He does do that. He's not in the aim of the author's walled-off further Commentary thought, but he hammers. One thing else, the Commentary post links to a bio blurb:
Nicholas Eberstadt holds the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and is author of Men Without Work: America’s Invisible Crisis (Templeton Press, 2016), upon which this essay draws and extends. He has been writing for Commentary since 1980.
So what useful work does this gentlemen do for the world, or more narrowly, toward boosting "the U.S. economy's growth potential?" He goes with the flow. Consuming food, durable goods, and short-term durables [Gucci, etc.]. So, a part of the money supply turnover, give him that, but giving to actual productivity of our US of A workforce even a jot by his actions?
That's not my question. It is getting to my question.
My question is when economists talk of goods and services, is being a pompous asshole a service? As good a service as the purported young ladies in Moscow provided for Mr. Trump per circulating rumor? That good, or less?
This page; "STAFF" - well dressed, but parasitic? You decide. None of them have a real job. They flak. That's adding zippo to the well-being of the nation. Hot air helps counter climate change? Not so, not even perhaps.
So, it is actually a range of related questions, including, how can you close a question like mine, without this?
Do notice that top menu bar, THE BIG RED right ending item: DONATE NOW. They have no business plan beyond folks giving them free money, and they offer what exactly, in return? In the world of productive work, my vote is with hammering man. Parasitic narcissistic kept and well-maintained officious opiners - paid voices of the extreme well-to-do -
basically a hive of "unworking folks," gender aside.
Like the man said, > “The turnaround comes when people are committed to shining the spotlight on this problem, and come from all over the political spectrum and say this huge problem can’t be invisible anymore.”
An "American Experiment?" In free loading? More? Or less?
At least they don't spell it, "Centre ...". You can say that in their behalf.