The Role of Shame and Welfare Dependency

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human . This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth. Helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks . Learn more about this landmark celebration at America250.org. Airtasker helps you check off your to-do list. I need the wasp nest gone. House cleaned, and my dog taken to his overpriced haircut. Go to airtasker.com or download the app. Airtasker, get anything done. It's 2026. We upgraded our phones, our cars, even our coffee. So why are we still acting like pleasure is negotiable? At Pink Cherry, it's not. They've got hundreds of toys that actually deliver, and if you don't know where to start, their mystery boxes make it easy. Go to Pinkcherry dot com and use promo code Chelsea to save up to eighty percent site wide because life is hard, feeling good shouldn't be. Pinkcherry dot com because everyone deserves pleasure. With my mom and dad living in Orange County, when we bring my five and seven year old to visit, we are sometimes in for a two hour drive that could feel like ten. Oh, as an avid camper, I know all about this. We'll pack up the RV and know this is either going to be the trip of a lifetime or a complete disaster. Which is why we load up the iPads with Lingo Kids before we even pull out of the driveway. It's what dreams are made of. Lingo Kids keeps kids engaged and quiet with over four thousand interactive games, songs, and shows that kids simply cannot get enough of. You can pack whatever you think you'll need, but Lingo Kids is the only entertainment you'll need for a stress free car ride. Or really any ride. Plane, train, hovercraft, whate Download Lingo Kids for free today. Or unlock even more amazing content with Lingo Kids Plus. Choose the yearly plan and save up to 60%. Search Lingo Kids in the App Store or Google Play. Lingo Kids. Everything kids love . Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong, and Joe Getty. Im'strong and getty enough. He 's strong and Police receiving a call about a man making a bomb threat inside a chase bank. The subject possibly has a makeshift detonator hand and wires coming from under his shirt. Nearby City Hall and police headquarters place on lockdown as police negotiated with the suspect. The subject stopped people on their knees. Authorities say the suspect held people captive inside one of the rooms in the bank, releasing two separate Okay, that's been going on the entire time we've been uh doing our radio show today, and just a horrifying scenario that we've all seen play out in TV shows and movies and often wondered ourselves what that would be like to be in a bank with a uh person with a gun or a bomb or whatever and horrifying. Are you gonna live through it and how's it gonna turn out and etc etc. What kind of maniac is this? We have breaking news, Michael. Bakreing news. The suspect who had barricaded himself inside a bank building in Bakersfield now has one more bullet in him than he used to. And And he ain't gonna be doing nothing anymore. He is dead as a hammer. A sniper got him. Oh really? Yeah. Wow. He's actually been been dead for some time, but they haven't uh announced it. I they were probably checking Now I assume he was in well, we know he was inside the building. Did he walk out of the building? Did the sniper have a view through a window? How how did this work? Nobody's saying but, uh I suspect very strongly that they got a clean shot and took it. Wow. Uh inside the building because there is absolutely no information in this account um stating otherwise. Wow. That's a dramatic end ing. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's a minor point. Uh but I brought it up uh earlier. Um whether it was in the bank or just in a building that happened to have a bank . And you know, it's it's uh again, it's a minor point, but it's interesting how incurious uh journalists are. Have you ever seen the movie Dog Day Afternoon? Oh, yeah. Al Pacino when he takes over the bank. That's a good one. Oh yeah, gazillion year old movie, but it's uh it's your best best uh being a hostage in a bank robbery situation, uh sort of movie I've ever seen. If you want to relive what those poor people in Bakersfield lived through today. Oh yeah. Yeah, indeed. Um what do we have coming up that I wanted to tease before I bring up my topic? I have no idea. Uh later in the hour I will be uh bringing you uh really interesting information about how young men in the United States and interestingly in Britain are not work ing in horrific numbers. Not working, not in school, not trying to work, not doing anything productive. Yeah, that's an that's an interesting one right there. Look at that. And AI hasn't truly hit yet. Oh wow. Good point. So I was listening to a couple of podcasts yesterday and uh got on this thought about the whole character issue around politics , which I had kind of dismissed earlier this week because I I thought the country had moved past it. I'm not talking about me personally, whether I care or not. Just it seemed to me that the character the country had kind of moved past, particularly around infidelity. Used to be back in the day, if you're old enough, speaking of the movie Dog Day Afternoon, way back in the uh way back in the day, um, if you were a politician and it and it emerged that you had had an affair, you're done. Well, almost derailed Clinton, obviously. I gotta go further back in the day. Further back in the day, you could have endless affairs on your wife and nobody would report it. So we cared, but nobody knew. JF JFK may have had more not just affairs, just like one night stands with people that were uh absolutely a hundred percent, you know on, the whole power structure, if you believe in that whole thing, um, uh of any president we've ever had. And he's held out uh held up as a shining light for democracy because nobody reported on this sort of stuff at the time. Then we went through a brief period, particularly Gary Hart, who was running for president in nineteen eighty? Eighty-eight. In nineteen eighty eight, as a Democrat, probably would have been the nominee, quite possibly the president. But uh he was on a boat called the monkey business with a young woman and it made the news and the first time the news decided to report on a guy's personal life about this sort of stuff, it exploded. He had to get out of the race because you can't have a nominee for a party who's cheating on his wife. Well then we move further down the road, Bill Clinton , all kinds of stuff going on, gets impeached, stays in office, blah blah blah, Donald Trump, everything in his life, ignored by the party that in theory was really holding the line on the character issue mattering, ignored Donald Trump's personal life. I'd kind of figured that well, I guess we've moved on in a country and become more like Europe, who's always wondered, you care about that? If the guy's gonna lead your country, whether or not he cheat on his wife, why do you care about that? Is the way Europe has always looked at it. And uh but this Graham Plattiner guy who's running for wants to be a senator up there in Maine, um, all those texts that came out over the weekend, the sexting texts, got way more attention in terms of driving out of the race, it seems to me, than is Nazi tattoo or anything else. Nazi tattoo has gotten a fair amount of attention, but uh yeah, it definitely uh added fuel to the fire. So are we back to caring about the character issue? And I guess the bigger question I have is should we care about the character issue? Should we care about what's going on uh between a husband and a wife, whether it's the husband or the wife? And uh and how about if they're okay with it? And they they stayed in the marriage and blah blah blah blah blah. Should that disqualify them? We don't we don't look at the CEOs of our company that way writ necessarily. Generally, no, although that has brought some guys down recently. You know, I am going to let Senator John Fetterman set up my answer to your uh your query in clip fifty one there, Michael. dozen explicit kinds of messages and and who knows what else. Would it be better for Democrats if he was not the candidate here? A clear Nazi tattoo on them, you probably could cons ume uh c conclude that there's a a n a Nazi sympathizer. How you know at some point are you gonna continue to to defend that or dismiss that and so uh I thought that was a good lead in to the way I'd react to your your question, which is uh it's uh it is no la marital infidelity or you know, being a playa , as they said probably twenty years ago on the streets. Um those are two different things. I will quibble on that after you say what you're going to say. Sexual indiscretions used to be disqualifying for a little while. Now they're just part of the equation. And this guy just has too many negatives. The the sexting thing or the being on kick, which is a hookup app and it i and the Nazi tattoo and uh rural mainers, white maners are stupid racists, and half a dozen other things. I think the Democratic Party Well as you said that's not true though. Uh it was for a little while. Well right, but no, you just uh you'd quite clearly made the point that for a while it was. So should it go being do you think? Uh no, not necessarily. Uh and again it,'s part of the package. I don't like Trump said, I'm gonna close the border and I'm gonna halt inflation. Uh you know, back well, you know, at various times. And he played around on his wives. Or you got Joe Biden, for instance. Well, I guess I suppose in the primary process you had a bunch of Republicans to choose from. Yeah, it's clear. I mean, uh politics is downstream of culture. So, you you know, can it's an interesting philosophical discussion, but the culture is already ruled. And it's ruled we're okay with it. Yeah, if the guy's compelling enough on the issues and I like 'em, yeah, it's not really my business. I think it should be presented as different things as a so if if uh let's use a woman, for instance, instead of always a guy because they can't play with a woman too. She had You're going to use a woman. That is disgusting . Say she had an affair. An affair with a dude lasted a while, and then it was their marriage was Rocky, and then they decided to stay together. Is not the same thing as lots and lots of different like one night stands sleeping around on business trips. Those are different things, aren't they? Or are they not? Maybe they're not. I don't know. It seems like they're different things to me. Um that the that the spouse was unaware of, you know, as opposed to they worked it out. Because uh this Platinum guy looked like I mean, it's he had a half a dozen different things going a year ago . Right. I mean, very recently. Certainly d via text anyway. Yeah. You know, I don't what the standard ought to be for sitting around philosophizing is one question. What the standard actually is when it all filters down to voters um is is a different question. Well it's pretty interesting that not that long a go, nineteen eighty eight's not that long ago, a a really promising coulda gotten elected president dude, Gary Hart, Senator from Colorado, had to leave the race. And again, I point out that Bill Clinton and Hillary barely got over that hump through some absolutely brilliant Machiavellian political maneuvering. So yeah, it was still a thing in the early nineties as well. Yeah. Which isn't that long ago. And now we've moved on from that. I got one more comment on that. After this. Yeah, this is crazy. Picture this. You're at work, your phone buzzes, it's your kid's number, cu it's your kid's voice, panic saying he's been in an accident, needs money wired right now. And you would do anything for him, right? And that's exactly what the scammers are counting on. Here's the play. Criminals buy your phone number and your family details from data brokers, then they grab three seconds of your kid's voice off some video, clone it And you can't stop them from cloning a voice because the technology exists, but you can make sure they never get your number in the first place and can't call you and that's done with a cogne's help. They uh that's a website that you can use to put data brokers on notice. They use the law on their side and tell them you can't sell your data. So we rely on incogni. You should too. It contacts hundreds of data brokers, forces them to delete your personal info, then keeps it gone, costs about seven dollars a month, worth every penny, and you get a nice discount when you use our code. Incogni.com slash armstrong. It's I-n-c-o-g-n-i.com, incogni.com slash armstr I think if anybody had tapes of our show going back thirty years, believe it or not, Joe and I were doing the same show talking to each other when the Bill Clinton impeachment was going on. How crazy is that. Dead end job, I'm telling you. No advancement. How crazy is that? We were talking about that during the impeachment in ninety eight, I guess. Does it rise to an impeachable def offense? But I would imagine there are clips of me saying things like if his wife can't trust him, how can the country trust him? Which is kind of what a lot of people believed for a very long time there . People weren't okay with infel infidelity when Kennedy was present. In fact it was the other way around. It was so awful people thought we got to keep this a secret . Uh you're you're right. I have a great deal to say on this, but we have no time. Perhaps we can return to the topic after a short break. Okay, I do have one more comment about the Clintons that needs to be made because there 's definitely a completely different topic around this that gets overlooked. Anywho, lots of stuff on the way. Stay here. Armstrong and Getty . Armstrong and Getty here for HIMs. There are all kinds of great weight loss approaches that fit into your world out there. They've got to put HIMS with a wide range of affordable GLP1 options. You've got weight loss goals, but hitting them is another story. Check out weight loss by HIMS. It's designed to support you in losing the weight and keeping it off. And HIMS now offers access to an affordable range of FDA approved GLP1 medications, including the Wagovy pill and the Wagovy Pen. Through HIMS, everything happens online. You'll connect with a licensed provider who will determine if treatment's right for you. And then if prescribed, your medication is delivered right to your door, no insurance necessary. Ready to reach your goals? Visit HIMS.com slash arm strong to get a personalized affordable plan that gets you. That's HIMS.com slash armstrong. Hymns.com slash armstrong. Weight loss by hymns is not available in all fifty states. Wagovi is the registered trademark of Novo Nordisk AS. To get started and learn more, including important safety information, Wagovi Clinical Study Information and Restrictions, visit HIMS.com . This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music performances from major artists , patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmarkbr Celeation at America250. org. With Airtasker, your weekends are a lot less busy. I need someone to fix the wobbly office chair, screen print tease for my kids' metal band, and I definitely don't have time to wait in line for my favorite everything bagel. What does AirTasker have in common with your go-to bagel spot? We do everything too. Just post your task, set your budget, and one of our local tas kers is on the case. Go to air tasker.com or download the app. Airtasker. Get anything done. It's 2026. We upgraded our phones, our cars, even our coffee. So why are we still acting like pleasure is negotiable? At Pink Cherry, it's not. They've got hundreds of toys that actually deliver, and whether you know exactly what you like or you're still figuring it out, there is a wide range to explore. If you'd rather skip the guesswork, their mystery boxes make it easy. They curate a mix for you so you can discover new favorites without overthinking it. And they ship discreetly with free shipping on orders over fifty-nine dollars, which we love. So go to pinkcherry.com and use promo code Chelsea to save up to eighty percent off site wide because life is hard. Feeling good shouldn't be pinkcherry.com because everyone deserves pleasure. Because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Good God, I've seen better acting in porn. Seriously, Jilly, you should have watched the beginning of Horny Housewives 2, you know . Jill Biden saying she had no idea her husband was a little off. This is like Snoop Dogg's wife being like, wait, he smokes weed? Are you serious? My Snoop? That's funny. That is funny. Jimmy Phaela . So we're we're talking pres uh uh uh uh about presidential politics, or just politics in general, and I was bringing up the idea 'cause I I heard a podcast yesterday where they're really making the whole uh this guy up in Maine running for Senate cheating on his wife thing was uh should be a um you can't be elected offense even without the other stuff. And I didn't know that that's where we still are. And I'm fine with us being there. I don't mind that as a standard. I'd I don't we should be able to find enough qualified people that that don't cheat on their spouses that that that we could we could do that? Run a country that way? I'm just surprised that it was still a topic though. Yeah, yeah. I uh yeah, boy. Every every aspect of this deserves like m multiple paragraphs . Uh I think w one thing at work here is and we've talked about this in various contexts in the twentieth century especially you had gatekeepers in journalism and they would decide which stories were worthy of you hearing and which ones were not or reading or seeing or whatever. Um and that had some upside to it. It had some downside to it. And at some point they decided, yeah, marital infidelity, it went from is nobody's business, JFK, to it's the hottest story in the world and everybody wants to hear it, and it's relevant. Gary Hart, Bill Clinton, etc. Um and I just think we become since there's much more visibility, nothing is out of bounds anymore. If a ball player is a drunk, you find out about it. Yeah. And so we have maybe appropriately become much, much more cynical about our politicians, and we figure they're all grasping scumbags of one sort or another. They're all flawed. They're all egomaniacs. They're all greedheads or sex pigs or whatever. Uh with some rare exceptions, like Ben Sass. Um and so if the package is pretty good. Uh the policy stances, my philosophy, taxes, blah blah blah, but the guy cheats on his wife. Well they're all scumbags anyway. So yeah, I'm voting for that scumbag over that scumbag . So the thing that bothered me about the Clintons was not as much his cheating on his wife, 'cause that's between him and Hillary, it's the destroying the women's lives if the story became public. That's the crime . That's what makes you despicable as a couple. You deciding you're okay, you know, my husband's a certain kind of guy and I'm gonna put up with it. And that's between you the two of you. You know, some people can do that, some people can't. Um, I don't get it. But but the fact that if one of these people becomes a public figure, you absolutely destroy him as some sort of lying, drug addicted, greedy , whatever, destroy their lives so that you can continue your cool lives. That is awful. Yes, yes. Hillary says yes, yes, yes. That is awful. But here's the counter argument. He's a Democrat. Right. Right, right, right. Because you're right. The character assassination is is uh inexcusable from anybody. Man, read the first, I think it's in the first chapter or two of George Stephanopoulos's book about how Hillary handled their first bimbo eruption. She is all absolutely on board in destroying some woman whose crime was being sexually attracted to her husband. That was her crime Aaron Powell Yeah, she was all about impeaching the witness, as they say in the trial business. The woman who is going to break the glass ceiling for all women to empower all women because they've been treated so poorly for so long. Young men don't work in numbers that are unprecedented in the history of mankind in the US and in Europe. This is big. That's news to me. I knew it was happening in the United States. We've talked a fair amount about it. It's a huge problem. You'd think it'd get more attention. I didn't was happening in Europe also though. Right, right. Well it's worse in Europe because they're openly a socialist society in this is practically an inevitable outcome of socialism. Uh but yeah, it's it's very troubling the trend. And as you pointed out, that's before AI hits. Whoops. Yeah. Yeah. Take a look at that and a whole bunch of other stuff. Um the bank heist hostage thing is over, but we don't know all the details. If those come out because it's gotten a fair amount of national attention, we'll let you know about it. And we have what might be the headline of the decade for you coming up next? I just got it. What? That's right. What? That's right. Armstrong and Getty . This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to giving forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration at America250.org . Airtasker helps you get your weekends back. I need a screen printer and someone to wait in line for my everything bagel. Go to airtasker.com or download the app. Local taskers do anything and everything. Airtasker. Get anything done. It's 2026. We upgraded our phones, our cars, even our coffee. So why are we still acting like pleasure is negotiable? At Pink Cherry, it's not. They've got hundreds of toys that actually deliver, and if you don't know where to start, their mystery boxes make it easy. Go to pinkcherry.com and use promo code Chelsea to save up to eighty percent site wide, because life is hard, feeling good shouldn't be. Pinkcherry.com because everyone deserves pleasure. With my mom and dad living in Orange County, when we bring my five and seven year old to visit, we are sometimes in for a two hour drive that could feel like ten. Oh, as an avid camper , I know all about this. We'll pack up the RV and know this is either going to be the trip of a lifetime or a complete disaster. Which is why we load up the iPads with lingo kids before we even pull out of the driveway. It's what dreams are made of. Lingo Kids keeps kids engaged and quiet with over 4,000 interactive games, songs, and shows that kids simply cannot get enough of. You can pack whatever you think you'll need, but Lingo Kids is the only entertainment you'll need for a stress-free car ride. Or really any ride. Plane, train, hovercraft, whatever. Download Lingo Kids for free today. Or unlock even more amazing content with Lingo Kids Plus. Choose the yearly plan and save up to sixty percent. Search Lingo Kids in the App Store or Google Play. Lingo Kids, everything kids love Joe teased before the commercials the headline of the decade and told me not to look at my phone, which I have not . I assuming the headline of the decade is not that Pebo Bryson has died. Uh no, no indeed, though he will be sorely missed . This is not headline of the decade because of its importance , but because it just well, I'll just read it to you . Scientists find yeast in frozen mummies guts. Use it to make sourdough bread. So you got a frozen mummy up in the tundra or whatever and you do an analysis and you say, hey, this this appears to be yeast. And somebody in the lab thinks, yeah, yeast. You use that for bread. You want to make some sourdough bread ? What? Hey, this bread's really good. Did you make it? Yeah, funny story . Yeast. Frozen mummy gut yeast. There's probably some value. It's a pro adcast report. I couldn't be troubled to watch it and studying ancient yeasts. But uh I mean, boy, if I happen to be at a cocktail party with you and that's what you do for Oh, the structure of Middle Eastern ancient yeast was really inspiring . Boy, so on a completely different topic , um I came across these two uh bits of information separately from each other. But uh and this this first one's about Britain, and there are a number of really interesting important stories about Britain right now, and I was considering craft ing one of my uh segments that of course has to have a title and theme music and I was going to uh I have the the the uh British music that we always play and I was going to entitle it What's all this then? But I decided to separate this story. Hey, hey! What's all this then? That was gonna be the introduction. Uh anyway, uh because this fits so well with an American story. Britain's lost generation of workers. Um Socialists don't get that. You're absolutely right. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for jumping in there. It's true. Uh Britain's learning about this lesson about its welfare state the hard way is a new government report revealed that one in eight of its working age youth currently are not employed in school or in job training. It's about a million. Um they point out uh nearly sixty percent of these youths aren't even looking for work. More than half have never held a job. And uh nearly half of Britain's idle youth now claim to have a working uh work limiting disability. Did you give us a definition of what you mean by youth? Uh No. Working age youth. No, let me find the age. Is that below is that including below eighteen? Let me look. But uh let's see. Nearly half claim disability, more than forty -two percent claim disabil ity. Wow . And of those, I think forty-two percent cite mental health problems as their primary condition. I'm I'm I'm too anxious to work. I just don't have the motivation. I just can't. My uh disability is uh anti-motivation syndrome. I've got a case of rather not do that it is Uh yeah, rather than the hand up that liberals often claim these benefits have become a trap for recipients who face little incentive to reintegrate into the workforce. About seventy percent of youth who claim a disability God, how many times do I say to my kids in various situations, you know how many things I did today that I didn't want to do? It's a very long list. They have to do something they don't want to do. Do you know why I did them? Because I didn't have any choice. Yeah, it's uh it's an um an enormous loss to the economy too. And the one uh the final thing I wanted to throw in from this was that uh even when young people want to work, the government makes it hard for them to do so. This is something Jack you're dealing with right now. Steadily rising payroll taxes for employers. A lot of people don't even know that payroll taxes exist. If I decide to hire you, the government says, aha, we're taxing you on hiring a person. Whoa, if you want more of something, subsidize it. If you want less of something, tax it, right? But anyway, steadily a rising payroll taxes for employers and a minimum wage that has increased by as much as eighty four percent since twenty nineteen for some younger age cohorts in Britain are pricing young inexperienced workers out of the job market. As the great Tim Sandifer pointed out on this show many, many years ago, you've made it illegal for a person who's worth $15 an hour to get a job with an employer who says,, you Yeah I'll pay fifteen bucks an hour. Maybe we can train you up. Maybe you can be worth twenty dollars an hour someday, but sure I'll make you that deal and and we'll give you a job to get you started. That is now illegal. That's how minimum wages work. Tim is the only person I've ever heard present it that way. That's the way it should always be presented by anybody's against this sort of stuff. You're outlawing twelve dollar an hour jobs. Some jobs are only worth twelve dollars an hour. Or the person is going to say, nah, I'll do it myself, or I just won't do it . On lots of stuff. Well, and if you are impressed by the British numbers, wait till you hear America's uh Jason Riley writing about this in the Wall Street Journal. One in three working age American men aren't so much as looking for a job. And I want to get into that in a second. Every time that comes up, I remember sitting and having coffee with a friend of mine having this discussion. He said Who's out of work who's not looking for a job? I've never not been looking for a job when I was out of work ever in my life. How do you how are you not looking for a job? What is that? I almost dropped an S bomb right there. I was gonna say, spit. I'm looking for a job when I've got a job. Usually, yeah. Right. Anyway, uh Jason Riley opens his column by quoting at length this bit from Chris Rock, but I thought we would just go ahead and play it for you. You can tell what kind of neighborhood you in just by who's not working. If you're in any neighborhood in America at 12:15 in the afternoon on a Wednesday, and you see women with sweatpants on, coming out the gym, pushing babies, riding bikes. That's right, chances are you're in a nice neighborhood . That's right . Wherever women ain't working is an amazing place to live. That is where I want to live. Now, let's switch it up. If you in any neighborhood in America at 1215 in the afternoon on a Wednesday, and you see men in sweatpants , smoking cigarettes, hanging with their boys, lifting weights in the yard riding children's bicycles then you are in danger . That is so I remember the first time I saw that that is so true. It should be part of a political speech. Right, right. Uh I've got to apologize to you good people. Hansen asked me, do you want the tighter version of that, the shorter one or the longer one? I said, ah, the shorter one. But it leaves out some of the great details that make Chris Rock uh uh uh great. Like he says uh about the nice neighborhood with the women and the the Lululemon pants. He ought to update the bit. He said, there's probably a whole foods right down the street. And then about the other neighborhood , he said, men riding children's bicycles as their actual transportation . Oh man, is he great ? So uh getting back to Jason Riley's point, uh Mr. Rock's funny insightful bit came to mind, uh he writes, as I read last month's jobs report, which showed that the share of American men in the labor force has dipped to record lows. According to the Department of Labor, one in three men were neither working nor looking for a job in April. Among males 20 and older, the sixty-six labor sixty-six percent labor force participation rate is down from seventy-three percent in two thousand six. That's a seven percent drop. Uh Mr. Rock was highlighting the correlation between unemployment and crime, but public safety isn't the only concern uh raised by a population, large population of idle young males. If you're able-bodied and unemployed and not looking for a job, to me, by definition, we have a policy failure. By definition. I don't need to know anything else. You're out of work and you're you're fine, you can work, uh, physically. But not even looking for a job, that's a policy failure. We've made the safety net, the holes are too small. Here's a nice simple declarative sent ence for you. A life without gainful employment has become a viable alternative for an increasing number of American males. Yeah. See, I I never spent a moment in my life thinking that was an option. It probably We We can get into or you probably are wh why why that's so bad for those people. It's bad for them. It's bad for your happiness. It's bad for culture. It's bad for all kinds of things. But how about me, the taxpayer, who is going to work? How bad is it for me to pay for you to sit around and do freaking nothing? That's ridiculous. Those very payroll taxes we were just discussing. Yeah. Yes, Michael, you seem incensed. Yeah, there's no more shame. That's the problem. That's part of it. I have said that for years. When they when they uh decided, you know, shame is a bad thing. Nobody should be You should be ashamed that you're able-bodied and living off of other people. You should be humiliated. You should be ashamed of yourself. Shame. Ring the shame bell, baby. Other people got up and went to work today so that you could lay around and watch TV. You should be ashamed of yourself. Yeah. They look they look at that some people who are in that situation look at the other way around. You're a sap. You're a chump. You got up and went to work today, and I didn't have to. Or they've uh guzzled down the the delicious medicine of rationalization said the system is stacked against us 'cause capitalism is exploitive, not to mention the patriarchy and systemic racism and everything else. You don't have a chance. Or you don't understand how bad my PTSD is around whatever issue. Talk openly about something I'm aware of. But anyway, uh the long term rise in male joblessness does not stem from an inability to find employment. It results instead from an unwillingness to search for work . And while labor forced participation rates vary by race and ethnicity, factors other than hiring discrimination seem to be playing a larger role in the disparities. A quote, this is uh from a land mark uh book, Men Without Work about this very topic. Um the the legacy of prejudice might seem to explain why prime age male work rates and workforce participation rates are lower for blacks than whites today, but they cannot explain why work rates and uh labor force partition race uh participation rates for white men today are decidedly lower than they were for black men in nineteen sixty five. Wow. Nor can they explain why labor participation rates of married black men 25 to 54 are higher than for never married white men in the same group . You know, one of our favorite phrases on this show is they didn't raise themselves . Some of it has gotta be that, doesn't it? I mean