I am still plowing through Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s book, Peril, and it is eye opening. I hope to finish some time this week and report back. I also have to sit in on another deposition this morning so this effort might be a little shorter than normal – or not.
I came across a story over the weekend that caught my attention. It turns out that today in America, there are more women going to college than men by a fairly significant percentage. College enrollment these days is about 60% women and 40% men. Scott Galloway, a professor at NYU, sees this as leading to a mating crisis that could lead to problems.1 He argues that most college educated women will want to partner up with college educated men rather than non-college-educated blue-collar workers. He posits that this will leave a large number of non-college-educated men unable to find partners resulting in an increase in relatively low wage-earning males who are unattached and somewhat disgruntled.
I think he has a point given that when you look around the world at countries where there is a large population of young men who are not well-educated and either unemployed or minimally employed, there tends to be a lot of instability and breeding grounds for gangs, violence, and political upheaval. And in the United States where gun ownership is easy and widespread, it does give one pause as to where this is all headed. Look at the recent resurgence of male-dominated neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups.
I thought this might be a problem unique to the United States but it turns out that it is much more widespread around the globe. I came across an article about Iceland where they are facing the same education gap between women and men.2 It is even more pronounced there where twice as many women attend college. The government of Iceland is concerned about this and looking at ways to remedy the situation, but from a completely different perspective. They are simply concerned about it from an equality perspective, not one of safety and potential unrest which is what the NYU professor was concerned about.
In Iceland, there is a broad social network and very little wealth disparity (97% of the population consider themselves middle class). In addition, although there are guns in Iceland, the per capita level is about one fourth that of the United States. Assault rifles are banned and it requires a lot of effort to be able to purchase a gun in Iceland. You have to have a medical exam (physical and mental), take a course, pass a test, have a background check, and demonstrate your knowledge at an actual shooting range. The process can literally take months. [Note: It appears, based upon the data I saw that no one has been murdered with a gun in Iceland since 2007] The fact is most guns eventually purchased in Iceland are shotguns and rifles used for hunting and target shooting. Handguns are rarely owned.3
The bottom line is that more women than men are attending college on a global scale. I personally think that’s great. It’s a given that old white guys haven’t exactly done a bang-up job of running the world for the last few centuries, perhaps it’s time for women to give it a go.
While I was researching this, I came across another very interesting press release from the U.S. Census Bureau. The release was sent out in 2020 while Trump was still president which is quite surprising because of what it says. I’m sure if, Steven Miller, Trump’s hardline immigration policy wonk, had seen this prior to its release he would have tried to kill it.
According to this Census report4,
- “ An estimated 47.4% of the foreign-born population who arrived in the United States from 2010 to 2019 had a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 36.3% of native-born Americans and 31.5% of the foreign-born population who entered the country in or before 2009.
- In 2019, 39.4% of naturalized citizens and 40.2% of children of the foreign-born population in the United States had a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 35.9% of those born to native-born parents. A greater share of the foreign-born population (14.1%) than native-born Americans (13.4%) also held an advanced degree, such as a master’s or doctorate. “
We all see the pictures of immigrants and hear the rhetoric about how they are a drain on the economy and a threat to the nation. While there is no doubt that we do receive the ‘poor huddled masses’ who are refugees from war torn countries, the fact is, according to this US Census report, the ‘foreigners’ and naturalized citizens tend to be better educated than native born Americans!!
When an employer has to choose between hiring a foreign born or naturalized citizen with a college degree versus a native-born American male without a college degree, which way do you think the employer will go? Of course, they will select the individual with the higher education because that is the best business decision. This will likely lead the unemployed or underemployed American male to claim that the foreigners are here stealing jobs – most likely jobs they are unqualified for! (Or unwilling to do – I don’t recall seeing any young, white males bent over picking strawberries in the hot sun during the summer up around Oxnard, California)
What does all this mean? It appears as if a greater percentage of the general male population of the United States is becoming less educated, and therefore is more susceptible to misinformation and propaganda, perhaps unable to find a mate leading to joining misogynistic groups like the Proud Boys, and has more and easier access to weapons. That should scare the hell out of everyone.
- Scott Galloway warns that less men going to college is dangerous – CNN Video
- https://hechingerreport.org/in-one-country-women-now-outnumber-men-in-college-by-two-to-one/
- From Iceland — Almost 4,000 Privately Owned Pistols In Iceland (grapevine.is)
- U.S. Census Bureau Releases New Educational Attainment Data