American Enterprise Institute - AEI

What Do Prime-age 'NILF' Men Do All Day?

The portrait of daily life that emerges from time-use surveys for grown men who are entirely disconnected from the world of work is sobering.

NILF = Not in Labor Force

NEET = Not employed nor in education & training

NILF is millions of people in the United States of America (USA) between the age of 21-54 years old who are voluntarily unemployed.

NILF are not people who cannot get a job. They simply refuse to seek gainful employment. Most of their time is spent in socializing, relaxing & leisure activities.

NEET was coined in the UK but it's essentially the same thing as NILF. Again, people who aren't actively in the labor force nor in the classroom.

in the USA, there's a million vacant, well-paying blue-collar jobs. Yet, people aren't interested in the work.

The push for college education from the 1960s up to present led many folks to believe white-collar jobs would be abundant & exist forever.

While people could see out-sourcing labor to other countries & technology replacing blue-collar labor, apparently they didn't foresee it happening to white-collar jobs.

Now, there's a huge population of people who were raised to look down on working with their hands but whose education does not provide skills to do real work.

NILF/NEET people have a support system of family & friends in place allowing them to live a life of leisure while unemployed.

Baby Boomers & Gen-Xers are taking care of adult offspring & grandchildren too. They provide the housing & food, the basic necessities that enable NILF/NEET people to survive.

IMO, any form of the Universal Basic Income (UBI) will increase the NILF/NEET population too.

There's no shortage of manufacturing & building & maintenence that needs to be done all over the planet. Therefore, no excuse for people being unemployed.

Also IMO, the normalization of laziness & acceptance of it especially among able-bodied men does not bode well for the human population.

I hope these dudes will turn off their video games & stop scrolling on their phones & get off the couch to seek employment. Put in 40+ hours a week doing real work.

In addition tp getting paid, I believe gainful employment makes people more interesting & well-rounded from a social perspective.

The labor force also gives men & women a chance to meet & make positive connections too.

There are far more benefits to working rather than sitting around all day doing little or nothing.😎

It's funny that you're posting this right now, because JUST THIS MORNING I was reading this article and thought about our discussion about young and middle aged men not working....................

Voices: The silent shame of fiftysomethings looking for work is a huge problem

We are all familiar with Neets. We usually take the term to mean younger people not in education, employment or training. But should we be broadening the term to include an older cohort?

Voices: The silent shame of fiftysomethings looking for work is a huge problem


It seems as if this society tries TO shame people who are over 50 looking for work, as if being middle aged guarantees a steady source of income.
I remember just a few years ago I had to find a new job because I wouldn't accept the vaccine my old job wanted us to take.
Different things come up in life.

NEET was coined in the UK but it's essentially the same thing as NILF. Again, people who aren't actively in the labor force nor in the classroom.

Which explains why I hadn't heard of the term, despite the article claiming "we've all" heard of the term before....lol.

Now, there's a huge population of people who were raised to look down on working with their hands but whose education does not provide skills to do real work.

Facts.

NILF/NEET people have a support system of family & friends in place allowing them to live a life of leisure while unemployed.

Many of them are mooching off of friends, lovers, and relatives....but that type of strategy rarely lasts over a decade.

Your parents eventually die, your friends get tired of supporting you, and your lover finds somebody else to love.

With the exceptions of your parents...depending on how long they live....those other options rarely last over 5 years.

Which means these people MUST either find a source of income or end up homeless, in prison, or dead.

Baby Boomers & Gen-Xers are taking care of adult offspring & grandchildren too. They provide the housing & food, the basic necessities that enable NILF/NEET people to survive.

More facts.
You don't know how many 50 and 60 year olds I know who's grown ass 30 year old kids.....SONS....are still living with them.
And some of these dudes have the NERVE to sit up and argue with their parents and not like being told what to do!

IMO, any form of the Universal Basic Income (UBI) will increase the NILF/NEET population too.

No doubt.

There's no shortage of manufacturing & building & maintenence that needs to be done all over the planet. Therefore, no excuse for people being unemployed.

The excuse is THEY aren't fit for those jobs, no matter how many are available....lol.

You can't hold a job if you're constantly high, have ADHD, or otherwise anti-social.

Would YOU want to live in a house some red-eyed mumble mouthed nigga with only a half a brain (because the other half got shot out back when he was living a gansta lifestyle) and a chronic weed addiction?

In addition tp getting paid, I believe gainful employment makes people more interesting & well-rounded from a social perspective.

The labor force also gives men & women a chance to meet & make positive connections too.

There are far more benefits to working rather than sitting around all day doing little or nothing.

MAN, you took the words right out of my....fingers??....lol.

Work has always been a GREAT place to meet people, even in today's politically correct environment.

You'd even work for low pay, if you enjoy what you do and the people you're doing it around.

Most jobs I've been on I liked because of the people.

I looked forward to seeing what kind of drama will unfold that day.

3 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

We are all familiar with Neets.

I don't know any off the top of my head. I guess Neets and I travel in different circles.

3 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

wouldn't accept the vaccine my old job wanted us to take.

Wait, what? You're an anti-vaccer too? Surely I knew this, and you fit the profile, but I guess I just forgot.

7 hours ago, ProfD said:

IMO, any form of the Universal Basic Income (UBI) will increase the NILF/NEET population too.

I don't know about that.

The NEET lifestyle -- the dependency of an able-bodied-adult on someone else -- requires a child-like mentality. Mature adults can support themselves and take pride in doing it.

Adults are not going to just opt into the NEET mentality because the government is passing out checks. It will be used for temporary support for whatever reason, illness, education...

6 hours ago, Troy said:

The NEET lifestyle -- the dependency of an able-bodied-adult on someone else -- requires a child-like mentality. Mature adults can support themselves and take pride in doing it.

Adults are not going to just opt into the NEET mentality because the government is passing out checks. It will be used for temporary support for whatever reason, illness, education...

According to the article & others like it...there's no shortage of NILF/NEET folks. They've always been around too. I have known quite a few.😎

OK, I just read the article; what conclusions did you draw from it?

• They say the data is self-reported, which you have to take with a grain of salt.

• They say the number of NILFs has increased since 1965, but so has the population, they don't appear to control for that.

• They include people in school in those numbers. It makes no sense to mix people getting an education with those who are not working and not looking for work

• How many of these men are independently wealthy and don't need to work?

Again, the real question is what conclusions are you drawing from the article ot leads you to believe that UBI will create more NEETS?

8 hours ago, Troy said:

Again, the real question is what conclusions are you drawing from the article ot leads you to believe that UBI will create more NEETS?

The fact that NILF/NEET folks between 21-54 years old have always existed to some degree whether being trust fund or living off other people; it's easy to believe those #s will increase with AI taking jobs.

If a UBI comes to fruition, I also believe it will definitely lead to more NILF/NEET folks because they will have just enough money to continue living off other people.

Again, there's no shortage of able-bodied people between the age of 21-54 who do not work for one reason or several.😎

@ProfD right, but you believed all that before you read the article. What I’m trying to understand is what in the article supports your belief?

15 minutes ago, admin said:

@ProfD right, but you believed all that before you read the article. What I’m trying to understand is what in the article supports your belief?

The article just highlights a situation I've seen for decades. It's only going to get worse in a few more years.😎

What do you mean by worse? Do you mean more people of prime working age dropping out of the work force?

If those people are pursuing things that they enjoy doing, or educating themselves maybe they will be contributing in other ways that benefit society. Just because someone doesn’t have a 9 to 5 doesn’t make them useless or bad for society.

There was a time in New York City, where Poets artists, musicians and others could afford to live and they gave the city It’s culture and made it a great place. today those people can’t afford to live in the city and the city is worse off as a result.

I think it’s great if we shared some of the tremendous prosperity and financial gains more evenly rather than allowing it to be concentrated among a handful of people. If that means some people choose to live a life of leisure great.

Again, most of us will choose to do something productive. I could sit around all day and smoke weed the way @Pioneer1 describes so many people out of work. I haven’t worked at 9 to 5 in almost 20 years and I’ve never sat around doing nothing — most of us wouldn’t.

8 hours ago, admin said:

What do you mean by worse? Do you mean more people of prime working age dropping out of the work force?

Correct. Prime age folks will drop out of the workforce voluntarily & involuntarily.

8 hours ago, admin said:

If those people are pursuing things that they enjoy doing, or educating themselves maybe they will be contributing in other ways that benefit society. Just because someone doesn’t have a 9 to 5 doesn’t make them useless or bad for society.

Right. If the unemployed are pursuing other things that could be beneficial to society, that would be great.

Sitting around socializing, relaxing & leisure is unproductive. There's so much that can be built, fixed & maintained.

8 hours ago, admin said:

There was a time in New York City, where Poets artists, musicians and others could afford to live and they gave the city It’s culture and made it a great place.

Sure. Creative people enhance culture. They provide a benefit to society. They're not sitting around playing video ganes all day.

8 hours ago, admin said:

I think it’s great if we shared some of the tremendous prosperity and financial gains more evenly rather than allowing it to be concentrated among a handful of people.

As I mentioned in the socialism theead, it doesn't make sense for a handful of people to be multimillionaire or billionaire or trillionaire.

Nobody in the richest nation on the planet should be poor. Everyone should have acces to housing, food & healthcare.

8 hours ago, admin said:

If that means some people choose to live a life of leisure great.

IMO, men are not supposed to live a life of leisure. Not as long as there are things that need to be done & problems to solve.

8 hours ago, admin said:

Again, most of us will choose to do something productive.

Right. Some folks need to be motivated into being productive. That's the benefit of benevolent dictatorship.😎

14 hours ago, ProfD said:

Some folks need to be motivated into being productive.

There will always be folks who are unproductive either because they’re incapable of being productive or they are simply not inclined to be. I don’t think we should be wasting time and resources trying to make them otherwise.

We should care for the ones who are incapable of being productive, and the ones who don’t want to be productive should just be encouraged to stay out the way of everyone else.

10 minutes ago, admin said:

There will always be folks who are unproductive... I don’t think we should be wasting time and resources trying to make them otherwise.

We should care for the ones who are incapable of being productive, and the ones who don’t want to be productive should just be encouraged to stay out the way of everyone else.

Agreed. I can certainly roll with it.👍🏿😎

I read the article...

The one thing I notice it doesn't concern itself with is the imprisoned or former imprisoned populace.

Do you know circa forty thousand women in the usa are blockaded from labor because they had traces or marijuana in their babies when born and the states they were in labeled them as endangering a child/child abusers.

These women , most of whom have had multiple children and have no criminal record are blockaded from work because of a situation in which their child had a drug in them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX-kDnO6GSI

what is my larger point? How many people in the usa are blockaded from labor because of their criminal record? A criminal record whcih often is based on the criminal intent of law enforcers applying their activities to specific communities for a fiscal or governmental policy agenda.

But the reason why said populace isn't mentioned is because of the fiscal capitalistic philosophy of the AEI , which i argue is a faith based position toward fiscal capitalism which in Universal basic income is seeing the death of their faith as they know it.

economic corner

https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/795-economic-corner-44-08122026/

Troy

I don't know any off the top of my head. I guess Neets and I travel in different circles.

You're too busy traveling to Vegas, South Africa, and other expensive spots around the world to run into those kind of people....lol.

Wait, what? You're an anti-vaccer too? Surely I knew this, and you fit the profile, but I guess I just forgot.

I'm surprised that YOU'RE surprised...lol.

The NEET lifestyle -- the dependency of an able-bodied-adult on someone else -- requires a child-like mentality. Mature adults can support themselves and take pride in doing it.

For thousands of years grown women in various societies were expected to depend on men for their sustenance and very survival.

It really depends on how one was raised to look at themselves and their role in society.

Adults are not going to just opt into the NEET mentality because the government is passing out checks. It will be used for temporary support for whatever reason, illness, education...

I've met more than a couple people who said they somehow managed to live off of strictly only student loans.

I'm not sure if it's true or how they were able to do it.

There will always be folks who are unproductive either because they’re incapable of being productive or they are simply not inclined to be. I don’t think we should be wasting time and resources trying to make them otherwise.

I agree.

Some people....you DON'T WANT them working anyway.

They'd fuck up whatever job they get their hands on....lol.

Sometimes when we're driving around town and somebody points at homeless people and say they should be somewhere and get a job, I ask them do you really want THAT dirty dude slobbering all over his self with a grin on his face fixing YOUR sandwich at Subway or stuffing YOUR tacos at Taco Bell?

No....I'd rather pay them a little money to sit there and do NOTHING than have them fix my food, lol.

and the ones who don’t want to be productive should just be encouraged to stay out the way of everyone else.

Come on Troy...it's ABOUT TIME you start speaking my language...loll

Bums, crack heads, meth addicts, etc....just pay them a little money to wander off somewhere and out the way.
Go somewhere and SIT DOWN....lol.

Help those who WANT to improve themselves....as best as they can be helped....but those who don't, leave them be.

ProfD

Again, there's no shortage of able-bodied people between the age of 21-54 who do not work for one reason or several.

But if you had your way you'd FORCE them to work.

Better get out there and cut some grass, shovel some snow....something....lol.

The article just highlights a situation I've seen for decades. It's only going to get worse in a few more years.

I've seen so many men in their 40s and 50s shamelessly relying on their parents to help them get their cars fixed or pay their rent.

It's almost disgusting.

Nobody in the richest nation on the planet should be poor. Everyone should have acces to housing, food & healthcare.

You can have access to those things and still be classified as poor.

IMO, men are not supposed to live a life of leisure. Not as long as there are things that need to be done & problems to solve.

Suppose a man is rich and has all of the money he will ever need in his life.

...and he got it without oppressing others.

He can't just enjoy his wealth and mind his own business if that's ALL he wants to do the rest of his life?

Do you think he has some sort of obligation to solve problems or help others?

And if so, by what authority is that obligation given to him?

Right. Some folks need to be motivated into being productive. That's the benefit of benevolent dictatorship.

Lol...looks like Wakanda may be getting a NEW SHERIFF in town.

Agreed. I can certainly roll with it

Ooooh no you don't.....you ole devil you.....lol.

YOU ain't gonna let some big healthy nigga with muscles popping out of his neck collect a monthly UBI check just to lay up and eat cheese burgers and smoke crack all damn day...and if he's got some money left at the end of the month MAYBE get a blow job from another fool who's also collecting a check.

No...YOU go put that sucka to work!

Put YOU in charge -and that little community service shit we see offenders doing on the side of the highway would be like a Saturday morning paper route compared to what YOU'D have them doing in order to collect that UBI check....lol.

6 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

Come on Troy...it's ABOUT TIME you start speaking my language...loll

Oops, I better change my position. Come on man we can agree from time to time. ;-)

That video you just shared is silly… well at least to me. The little video got 4.5 thousand likes. So YouTube‘s algorithm showed it to a lot of people.

Did you find the video funny? Do you think it was a sideways promotion of subway I think that’s what he said was good?

It is fascinating how Google has created an incentives for people to create an upload silly videos like this.

But going back to your point for sharing it, sure if people wanna spend their checks creating videos like this, fine. I don’t have to watch them. There are a lot of man-babies doing silly things.

12 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

Some people....you DON'T WANT them working anyway.

They'd fuck up whatever job they get their hands on....lol.

There's a job that an able-bodied adult can do wirhout f8cking it up. Give them a trash pick-up stick & bag.

12 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

Sometimes when we're driving around town and somebody points at homeless people and say they should be somewhere and get a job, I ask them do you really want THAT dirty dude slobbering all over his self with a grin on his face fixing YOUR sandwich at Subway or stuffing YOUR tacos at Taco Bell?

Surely, nobody would hire that guy to work in food service. But, he would fit on a construction site as a laborer.

12 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

Again, there's no shortage of able-bodied people between the age of 21-54 who do not work for one reason or several.

But if you had your way you'd FORCE them to work.

Better get out there and cut some grass, shovel some snow....something....lol.

Right. Because there's no shortage of things that need to be done.

I just drove through Delaware. They've got enough corn fieds to keep people employed for years.

12 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

I've seen so many men in their 40s and 50s shamelessly relying on their parents to help them get their cars fixed or pay their rent.

It's almost disgusting.

It is disgusting. I blame their parents for enabling that foolishness.

12 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

Nobody in the richest nation on the planet should be poor. Everyone should have acces to housing, food & healthcare.

You can have access to those things and still be classified as poor.

Sure. Especially when compared to others who have more.

12 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

IMO, men are not supposed to live a life of leisure. Not as long as there are things that need to be done & problems to solve.

Suppose a man is rich and has all of the money he will ever need in his life.

...and he got it without oppressing others.

He can't just enjoy his wealth and mind his own business if that's ALL he wants to do the rest of his life?

Correct. A rich man doesn't have to work.

12 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

Do you think he has some sort of obligation to solve problems or help others?

Yep.

12 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

And if so, by what authority is that obligation given to him?

The privilege of being human.

12 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

Right. Some folks need to be motivated into being productive. That's the benefit of benevolent dictatorship.

Lol...looks like Wakanda may be getting a NEW SHERIFF in town.

There's nobody in Wakanda laying around doing absolutely nothing more than socializing, relaxing & leisure.

12 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

Agreed. I can certainly roll with it

Ooooh no you don't.....you ole devil you.....lol.

YOU ain't gonna let some big healthy nigga with muscles popping out of his neck collect a monthly UBI check just to lay up and eat cheese burgers and smoke crack all damn day...and if he's got some money left at the end of the month MAYBE get a blow job from another fool who's also collecting a check.

No...YOU go put that sucka to work!

Right. That muscle-bound n8gglet will be on a construction site moving the heaviest materials.

12 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

Put YOU in charge -and that little community service shit we see offenders doing on the side of the highway would be like a Saturday morning paper route compared to what YOU'D have them doing in order to collect that UBI check....lol.

Most definitely. Folks gonna work for it.

I can always find something for people to do within their knowledge, skills & abilities.😎