Men around the world have fallen into a global depression

It seems that men today are experiencing more than just a crisis—it’s a full-blown global depression. And it’s not just about statistics; it’s about a general sense of having lost one’s bearings. In the U.S., where the problem is particularly noticeable, this is already being discussed by politicians and university professors: Men around the world have fallen into a global depression — There's a brutal one going on right now the crisis of masculinity.

And there are good reasons for this:

• Young men are being laid off in droves, and it's getting harder and harder to find a new job;
• Neural networks are taking away a lot of jobs;
• Men's income has fallen sharply—relative to prices, men's earnings are now lower than they were at the end of the last century;
• Housing and education are prohibitively expensive;
• And the icing on the cake is global conflicts and a shaky economy, which don't bode well for the future.

Оказалось, что 15% мужчин старше 30 лет всё ещё live with their parents, one in seven heterosexuals does not have neither a girlfriend nor any friends — that's why it's so The suicide rate has risen, especially among Zoomers.

One of the key problems cited is "the loss of the role of breadwinner". Now, in 40% of families, the woman — the primary breadwinner; without this status, a man feels like a loser and loses his sense of purpose, according to psychologists.

Business professor and bestselling author Scott Galloway is a quintessential figure of the world of success: bald, white, muscular, with podcasts, millions of followers, and books on personal finance. But despite his “alpha” appearance, he has suddenly become the leading voice on a new topic—the crisis of male identity. In his book Notes on Being a Man He writes that young men “are falling faster and lower than any generation in recent times.”

И цифры действительно мрачные. В американских вузах на каждых трёх студенток приходится только двое студентов. К тридцати пяти годам больше 15% мужчин всё ещё живут с родителями, тогда как среди женщин таких меньше 9%. Мужчины совершают самоубийства в три с половиной раза чаще, а реальные зарплаты у них, если сравнить с 1979 годом, ниже. Даже с дипломом о высшем образовании молодые мужчины чаще оказываются безработными, чем женщины.

This trend has already become a political issue in the U.S. California Governor Gavin Newsom and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel speak of a “crisis of connection and opportunity” for men. Even conservatives like Charlie Kirk are using this narrative to attract a young male audience—after all, it is this demographic that is increasingly voting for the right.

That sounds reasonable. But critics point out that it all looks too much like the old Scout Code, just with a new look. Intelligence, strength, resilience, hard work, and compassion—aren’t these universal human qualities, rather than “masculine” ones? Even the Boy Scouts have long since become co-ed.

If you dig deeper, the causes of the crisis lie not in people's minds, but in the economy

The decline of manufacturing, the disappearance of union jobs, and the rising costs of housing and education—all of these have hit working-class men particularly hard. This is especially true for Black men, for whom these stable professions became accessible only after the victories of the civil rights movement.

But the problem is broader than that. Yes, men today really are at a loss—they earn less, mature later, and more often feel unnecessary. But women also live under the same pressure, just in a different form. Perhaps we're talking about not about a “crisis of masculinity,” but about a crisis in modern society as a whole—a world where old roles are crumbling and no one has really come up with new ones yet.

So global depression isn't just a men's issue. It's just that men, who are used to being confident in themselves and their roles, find it particularly difficult to cope with.