The point...

So this article from the NY Times is its "most blogged." And I can see why. It's about men, aged 30-55, who lost their jobs, but don't go out an get another. The graphic on the left is the most striking. It shows percentage of men from 30-54 who are not working, and shows how this figure changes from 1950 through 2004. The reason most men in the article site for not getting another job is that they don't want to "downgrade" themselves. They won't be able to find another job that pays as well as the one they had before. They want to enjoy their life and live off of their savings.

Before I start, in the interest of self-disclosure, I once did an internship at the steel mill featured in the article, Northwestern Steel and Wire. Second, my dad is retired, and seems to love it. Third, I can just as easily be accused of the last statement of the prior paragraph. (I will, however, go back to work. Soon, I hope.) End of journalistic integrity check.

I could turn this into a "lazy men" bashing post. But, it's actually not my point. This is a symptom of a larger issue that hasn't upset enough people.

I'll touch on education, earnings and jobs:

There are many articles published arguing that boys are falling behind in academic achievement. Valedictorians, student council presidents, and college graduates are all being dominated by women. This prompts some to worry that men are falling behind in this arena. Others say that it is finally the women catching up to what men have always been doing, and it's sexist to be worried about men. All of this misses the big debate.

These articles rarely discuss the fact that there are still careers that women avoid. Men still dominate those majors that usually see the highest earnings right out of college: engineering or the hard sciences. For one reason or another, there is some barrier to entry for women. Exactly what that barrier is, no one yet knows and is the topic of another debate.

Indeed, the Women's Bureau at the US Department of Labor presents some interesting statistics. In their "Hot Jobs for the 21st Century," they provide a list of the fastest growing occupations, as well as the occupations that will provide the largest growth in jobs. Most of the occupations listed on the "fastest" list require at least a college degree, if not postgraduate work. They are computer jobs, health care jobs, and, to my joy, environment related jobs. The "greatest growth" occupations don't usually require a four year degree. The third table on the web page is of note - listing the average weekly salary for given jobs. It makes clear that "more education" brings more money home.

Compare this to the list of 20 Leading Occupations of Employed Women. The jobs women dominate may be on the "greatest growth" list above, but they tend to be those with lower average weekly salaries.

But, money isn't everything, and the pay still isn't the point I want to make.

Some of these jobs, like a nurse, do pay well, the other issue is that all of the"leading occupations" allow you and only you to thrive. These aren't occupations that create jobs for others. We have teacher's aides and nurse's aides so that we need fewer teachers and nurses (this is outsourcing a job too), but not because the teacher or nurse created a new job that needed to be filled. Contrast this to an engineer or scientist, whose job it is to make something new. That new thing must somehow be made, providing jobs to others.

I see the "slacker men" and the lack of women in science and engineering as part of the same problem. The men don't want to retool and acquire skills that will get them back into the economy. Most women are choosing careers that aren't creating jobs for others. We are checking out of the future.

In the future, everything will be sourced to the person who is best suited to complete the task. If you want to thrive, you must be the person it gets sourced to. So you need to create new tasks - innovate - so that you have new things to do. If you innovate it, at least initially, you will be best suited for the work. And that's the thing about a new job - it didn't displace anyone else from his job. And if you are successful, you will create a job for others too. They can thrive too.

If we are going to thrive and not just survive, we need everybody. This is something that I really saw on my trip. About 1% of Indians are involved in IT or manufacturing. The Chinese government censors my blog and google. So it struck me: What's going to happen to the US when these countries get everyone on board?

We need all hands on deck to deal with the changes that are coming. Commit to learning new skills for the rest of your life to stay in the game.