The economic challenges facing men without college degrees

NPR. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Jerrion Woods. It's the season of giving. So today, we are giving you an extra episode to enjoy. It starts with a question about men and money. Now over the last several decades, have men been earning more now than they used to? Well, there are no simple answers in social science or economics. So it's a sometimes feel it's a bit like you know the Groucho Marx quote about, well, these are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others. Richard Reeves is president of the American Institute for Boys and Men. And Richard says to answer this question about the change in men's wages depends on the answer to other questions, like what span of years are being compared, and what ages are you looking at? Over the age of 16, prime age men, which distressingly is defined as 25 to 54. How old are you? I'm 55. Yeah. I know. You just left no room. I am literally no longer prime age. According to him, maybe. I'm so prime. Thank you. And then perhaps, like, nerdiest of all, you can decide how to adjust for inflation. So do you use a common measure like the consumer price index or something else? And so all of those different decisions, which men by age, which starting year, and which measure of inflation can have massive differences in the story you wanna tell. For Richard, the story he wants us to focus on is one he argues has been ignored and overlooked in elite circles, the economic and social challenges facing men, particularly men without college degrees. Richard wrote about this in his 2022 book of Boys and Men, Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why it Matters, and What to Do About It. He says the potential solutions involve economic policy, but just as important, a major cultural shift in how we see the roles of men. Today's episode is an interview with Richard Reeves. He was on the show a while back, but there was a lot of great stuff we did not have time for in the episode. So this version today is one that our NPR plus supporters got to hear in a bonus episode. It was one of our most popular bonus episodes of the year, and today, we're excited to share it with everybody. This is the kind of thing we love sharing for NPR Plus listeners. You can learn more and sign up at +.npr.org. So here it is, my conversation with Richard Reeves. We circled back to the the question we started with at the very top. Are Ben earning more now than they used to? Well, Richard Reeves, I have an assignment for you. I have no prior desire to show it going up or down. I just wanna see what your best estimate is. So what assumptions would you use and what do you find? You want the truth. …