There are at least six million job openings in the U.S., yet we have a record number of working age men not working. Maybe one reason is the Feds are still paying people welfare not to work.

Brad Wilcox and Grant Bailey of the Institute for Family Studies report:

The 2024 Current Population Survey indicates that 31% of men ages 25-40 who are not working full-time collected some form of cash or cash-equivalent benefit in the form of food stamps, Social Security for disability, Supplemental Security Income, or unemployment insurance in the prior year. Such benefits are particularly common among the nearly 4 million men in this age group who are not in the labor force, of whom 40% had received some cash or cash-equivalent government benefit. This doesn’t include other non-cash government supports, like health insurance or reduced rent.

As our UP economic advisory board member David Bahnsen points out in his great book Full Time: Work and the Meaning of Life, this trend of young men not working is an economic and social catastrophe for America if it continues. Work is highly associated with dignity, happiness, health, marriage and intact families.