The Testosterone Election
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Audio Recording by George Hahn
I believe the more interesting conversation than why she lost, is how he won. We on the left try to comfort each other with the cold (i.e., freezing) comfort of “he barely won the popular vote,” or “Wisconsin was decided by just 30k people,” but the reality is Donald Trump destroyed Kamala Harris. Trump, for the first time, won the popular vote and took all seven swing states. It was a political earthquake that rendered legacy media and knocking on doors as 20th century relics. Trump gained 13 points with Latinos, and the quake even shook races in California. (Note: the Golden State is still counting ballots.) The aftershocks will be felt for the next four years (and beyond), but we know where the epicenter was.
Social Contract, Broken
Despite a 51-48 split in the popular vote, three-quarters of Americans agree on one thing: We’re on the wrong track. That’s been the political reality for most of this century — high levels of dissatisfaction, resulting in a series of “change” elections. The reason? Voters recognize that millennials and Zoomers aren’t as prosperous as their boomer and Gen X parents. One example: In 1981 the median age of a homebuyer was 38, today it’s 54.
The epicenter of the 2024 political earthquake wasn’t immigration, bodily autonomy, or democracy. It was the social contract between America and its citizens. The contract is straightforward: Work hard and play by the rules, and your children will have a better life than you did. For the first time in 250 years, that contract has not held.
President ‘T’
During an earthquake, solid ground is an illusion. I learned this in 1971, when the Sylmar quake devastated Los Angeles. The movement of tectonic plates, usually just a few centimeters per year, goes unnoticed until they slip, releasing enough energy to rip apart the ground beneath your feet. Tectonic plates meet, pressure builds, and ultimately breaks apart at the fault line. If the epicenter of this election was America’s social contract, the fault line was masculinity.
Before the election, I predicted the outcome would be decided by whoever presented a more aspirational vision of masculinity. The reasoning was correct; the call was wrong. Instead of seeing men as providers and protectors, voters embraced crypto, the UFC, and Hulk Hogan. Tesla, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin are up 29%, 25%, 24%, and 106%, respectively. (Note: the S&P is up nearly 4% over the same period.) And we Democrats were stood up, left bereft by voters motivated by bodily autonomy … who didn’t show up.
Trump was able to distance himself from the bodily autonomy issue. Five of the seven states that voted for pro-choice amendments split the ticket on the issue, pulling the lever for the former president. America elected President T, only the “T” doesn’t stand for Trump, but testosterone. How Americans vote should be taken seriously re the direction of the country, but much of the rhetoric has been ugly and should not be normalized.
Man Down
I receive a lot of emails from worried parents, particularly mothers, along these lines: “I have a daughter who lives in Chicago and works in PR and another daughter who’s at Penn. My son lives in our basement, vapes, and plays video games.”
Young American men are in a crisis of underemployment and under-socialization. Soaring college costs affect people regardless of gender, but since 2011, the percentage of young men enrolled in college has dropped from 47% to 42%. Manufacturing jobs, once a ticket to the middle class for men without college degrees, have been offshored. Housing is increasingly unaffordable; nearly 60% of men aged 18 to 24 live with their parents and 1 in 5 still live with their parents at 30. Many men are stuck: isolated, despairing, and unproductive, prone to obesity, drug addiction, and suicide, susceptible to misogyny, conspiracy theories, and radicalization. They make inadequate mates, employees, and citizens.
Burn
An African proverb states: “The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.” When young men are struggling, they, and their parents, vote based on an attribute vs. an issue. That attribute this cycle was disruption. These voters didn’t vote for the party that believes the solution for young men is to act more like women, or even traditional Republicans. They opted for whoever would disrupt an America that’s broken its most basic contract. As Cersei Lannister said: “I choose violence.” The electorate chose chaos.
When parents see their kids hurting, they become single-issue voters. From 2020 to 2024, Trump gained 15 points among 18- to 29-year-old men. The mothers of young voters (women ages 45-64) voted for Trump more than any other age group of women, including women over 65. Their fathers (men ages 45-64) voted for Trump at a higher rate than any other male age group — except for men over 65, who supported him by one percentage point more. The boys burned down the village to feel its warmth, and their parents gave them the matches.
The Kids Aren’t Alright
In April I gave a TED Talk about America’s war on the young. The war is being waged on nearly every front, but one especially revealing battleground is our social safety net.
If it seems like we care more about senior citizens than our children, trust your instincts — recall that we let the Child Tax Credit expansion expire post-pandemic. Meanwhile, Social Security remains the third rail of American politics, with old people electing older people who vote themselves more money. To paraphrase Warren Buffet, there is a generational war in America, and my generation is winning.
It’s Still the Economy, Stupid
After a campaign where most of the oxygen was consumed by performative pandering over culture war issues, voters reminded us that their No. 1 issue is the economy. America is a platform that provides two things: the defense of our shores and citizens and economic opportunity. Everything else comes in a distant third. In a capitalist society, the fastest path to expanding and protecting rights is simple: Give people more money. When you put expanding rights ahead of increasing economic opportunity, you’re treating the symptom, not the disease.
In America — and this has not always been the case and should be celebrated — your opportunities are more a function of your economic weight class than your identity. Demographics are no longer destiny. Today in America you’d rather be born non-white or gay than poor. Our spending priorities (entitlements), tax policies (capital gains and mortgage interest deductions), and fiscal policies (bail-outs of incumbents) are nothing but a transfer of wealth from young to old. Compared to 40 years ago, the average 70+-year-old is 72% wealthier, and the average person under 40 is 24% less wealthy. In addition, social media notifications remind them 210 times a day that everyone “else” is killing it. The most noxious emission in America is not carbon but shame.
The disease is simple to diagnose: Young people don’t have enough money. We should treat the disease, not with leeches (tariffs) and cocaine (tax cuts for the wealthy), but treatments that are proven to work.
A few suggestions …
Do the Minimum
Seventy percent of minimum wage workers are between 16 and 34. The fastest way to put more money in their hands is to give them a raise. I believe the federal minimum wage should be $25 per hour.
Ask What You Can Do for Your Country
Only 18% of 18- to 34-year-olds say they’re proud to be an American. We should require/encourage one or two years of (paid) service for young people. Service builds grit, camaraderie, connections, and social conscience; it heals political divisions and restores faith in the country. The left will cry fascism, the right communism. Angering both extremes is a tell for good policy, which generally appeals to the center rather than the fringes. Note: When the extremes agree, it’s usually centered on reckless spending or antisemitism.
Get Fit
JFK challenged Americans to improve their physical fitness. The President’s Physical Fitness Test emphasized performance, but it was replaced by the Presidential Youth Fitness Program, which emphasized health. We should do both, as some studies have shown that physical strength and exercise are 1.5x as effective as antidepressants at battling depression.
Build, Baby, Build
We have a shortage of affordable housing. One conservative estimate suggests we need to build 3 million housing units. This isn’t rocket science. Building housing at that scale would create more than a million jobs and generate billions in tax revenue. The private sector responds to incentives. This should likely be done via a tax credit, vs. regulation.
Nuclear Option
FDR’s New Deal put millions to work, building the Hoover Dam and LaGuardia Airport and bringing electricity to the South. Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System — a project of immeasurable benefit for jobs and commerce — continues to pay dividends 70 years later. Today we need carbon-free energy to combat climate change and fuel the AI revolution. Nuclear accounts for 20% of our total power output and half of our clean energy. Increasing our nuclear output 3x would likely create 1.5 million jobs. Nuclear energy feels more masculine than wind and solar — I’m hopeful Trump will embrace it.
IRS Jovem
We should take a page from Portugal and grant a tax holiday for 18-35 year olds as a means of staunching generational wealth transfer. The Portuguese government recognized the most talented young Portuguese had one thing in common: They’d left the country. The new tax benefits extend over 10 years, including no taxation for the first year. The program is meant to help retain and attract young professionals. In the U.S., we have the most anxious and depressed younger generation in history. The incumbents will plead complexity as a mis-direct from a simple solution, more prosperity (i.e., money). The program would not be that expensive, as it requires no increase in the administrative state, and young people don’t generate much tax revenue to begin with.
Make Education Affordable Again
Nothing says “we believe in you” like education. Some public universities offer free admission to students who meet minimum academic requirements. This should be the rule, not the exception. Any university that has an endowment over a billion that’s not expanding its freshman class faster than population growth should lose its tax-free status. It’s no longer a public servant but a hedge fund offering classes.
Also, we should bulk up on vocational training and paid apprenticeships, as many people, especially men, thrive in careers that require strength, sweat, and technical skill. These are good-paying jobs shamed by the zeitgeist in our society, which says if you’re one of the two-thirds of families whose kid doesn’t graduate from college you and your kid have fucked up (see above: shame).
Make Dating Great Again
Young people are having less sex. This contributes to a delay in unlocking adult milestones (marriage, kids) and sets up a demographic time bomb. Without the prospect of a romantic relationship, women pour energy into other relationships and work, men into addiction and resentment. Remote work is a disaster for young people — a quarter of all couples meet at work. We need to get more young people into an office, classroom, or some other environment where they’re serving in the agency of something bigger than themselves (see above: national service).
Today’s venue for connection, or lack thereof, is online dating. But, like every other sector that’s been digitized, it’s become a winner-take-most arena. A small number of men garner all the attention, leaving a man of average attractiveness totally shut out of the market, which validates his sense of worthlessness. And the top decile of men are given license to engage in Porsche polygamy, which doesn’t encourage the formation of long-term relationships and issues a hall pass for bad behavior. Who wants more economically and emotionally viable men? A: Women. How do we get young people pairing? A: Make more men more attractive by leveling up young people economically.
Shooting Match
AI, GDP, S&P, innovation, shareholder growth … these things are all means. The ends are deep and meaningful relationships. They are everything. And the center of (literally) everything is the well-being of your kids. When they’re not doing well, they and their mothers become the mother of single-issue voters: change/disruption.
So … how did Trump win? A: His campaign determined the best way to win over young men and their parents was to act like a young bro himself. Think about it: rockets, crypto, Rogan, coarse language, offensive jokes. This election was supposed to be a referendum on women’s rights. It wasn’t. It was a cold plunge into testosterone.
Life is so rich,
P.S. Josh Brown joined us last week on the Prof G Markets pod to discuss how the financial landscape could evolve in Trump’s second term. Listen here on Apple or here on Spotify.
P.P.S. Section’s big Black Friday deal this year is 40% off the first AI for Business Mini-MBA of 2025 for everyone who joins the waitlist before Nov. 22. This is no longer an optional skill — I’d encourage you to take advantage.
Correction: Last week we incorrectly cited the source on our chart on the median age of audience for select media. The correct source is Amplifi Media and the chart has been corrected and republished, with our apologies to CEO Steven Goldstein.
THE AUTHOR NEEDS TO STUDY ECONOMICS. ANOTHER GOVERNMENT GIVE AWAY IS NOT THE ANSWER BUT HARD WORK AND BETTER EDUCATION THE US MADE ITS WAY IN THE WORLD BY WORK AND OPPORTUNITY NOT BY GIVING UNDESERVED RAISES AND FREE THINGS.
OK. I get your premise but name one policy or change that Trump will make that will actually address the issues of this demographic other than a quick hit of bro recognition? And what happened to tough love from parents. The #1 thing these parents could do is turn of the wifi and internet access to these men/boys. They are never going to find fulfilling work or love sitting in their basements. The bigger issue in my mind is the flat out buying of elections by the bro billionaires who funded Trump. They will continue to rake in billions on the addition of men/boys to the never ending hit of outrage and virtual emptiness. Tech is no longer the solution to problems it is the problem – along with a Supreme Court who has made money the only thing that matters. My question is how do we actually address that.
Addiction of men/boys to the never ending hit of outrage… not addition.
Lovely as always. Executive Summary: “What to expect when AOC is the poster child of the Democratic Party”.
Having worked in residential real estate both in selling homes and providing financing in Los Angeles I find that one significant part that is deteriorating Housing Affordability problem is that large corporations are buying up homes at inflated prices for all cash which are elbowing out traditional family home buyers. These corporations have the ability to buy $250,000 starter homes and $2,000,000+ remodeled/renovated homes. I find that if this was not the case prices would be significantly lower in all cases as the normal practice of negotiating the buying and selling of a home would return. But as it stands now their is no mechanism in the market place to curtail this practice and I believe it will be the end of common home ownership in mature cities and suburbs across the USA within the next 10 years. How and Why Congress would allow this is reprehensible and in no way represents the normal market place mechanisms for a healthy and affordable housing market.
Scott, as always, love reading your thoughtful weekly posts (just as I am hooked on Prof G podcasts). I agree with the bulk of what you’re saying. I do disagree with your proposition of the minimum wage. My reasoning is as follows: innovation and technology is going to start creeping in even faster. Look at McDonald’s kiosks and notice the number of people behind the counter dwindling with every single passage of a minimum wage increase. At some point it’s going to become much cheaper to hire a robot, that always shows up, has no excuses, and costs about 1/3 what a company might pay for a complaining youngster with a minimum wage. Would like to hear your thoughts and your arguments for the minimum wage and how it is going to stick in the modern society, outside of what it does to the population of 18 to 24 year olds. Just basic economics would do.
Scott, are you going to donate to help pay Kamala Harris’ campaign debt?
Great post. There was a major misdirect. We were all looking in the wrong places.
Harris wasn’t a spectacular candidate but she didn’t steal secret and top secret documents, she never got convicted of felonies like Trump did, she never told rioters she loved them, she never defrauded banks or paid off lovers….Let’s get real here. Trump is a swaggering, slandering psychpath! We know he took those secret intelligence documents because he admitted it on TV. He had trials coming up for RICO in Geogia for election interference. And the DC case was pending for more felonies regarding his participation in the January 6th riot desecrating the Capitol. His own lawyers pleaded guilty and were prepared to testify against him. So was Pence, Trump’s VP. Then there were the generals who worked with him and called him a fascist and unfit. Nobody said that about Harris. It’s unheard of for Generals to openly criticize a President who they worked for.
Cope harder
Perhaps, in hindsight, offering vasectomies at the DNC wasn’t a great move. You can blame Rogan & Rocket-man all you want but with Tim Walz as the WDFH mascot, it should come as no surprise that men rejected the oestrogen offer.
Apologies Professor, but your post mortem over simplifies and dodges a number of key facts. Yes, Trump got a lot of support from men…white, black, Latino….but he also captured more votes from women than Kamala’s campaign believed he would. This might be because sensible women were more concerned with the economy than they were with the bodily autonomy issue, but it might also be because men and women alike recognized that Kamala was shockingly unqualified for the job….full stop. In a matter of days, the media transformed her from the most unpopular vice president in history, whose own party was trying to find ways to remove her from the ballot, into some amazing Messiah candidate (the new Obama). It was a manufactured, artificial profile, which could not stand up to any real scrutiny, and the voting public wasn’t sufficiently swayed by MSNBC, CNN, et al. Bottom line, for many Trump was the “less unqualified” candidate.
Harris wasn’t a spectacular candidate but she didn’t steal secret and top secret documents, she never got convicted of felonies like Trump did, she never told rioters she loved them, she never defrauded banks or paid off lovers….Let’s get real here. Trump is a swaggering, slandering psychpath! We know he took those secret intelligence documents because he admitted it on TV. He had trials coming up for RICO in Geogia for election interference. And the DC case was pending for more felonies regarding his participation in the January 6th riot desecrating the Capitol. His own lawyers pleaded guilty and were prepared to testify against him. So was Pence, Trump’s VP. Then there were the generals who worked with him and called him a fascist and unfit. Nobody said that about Harris. It’s unheard of for Generals to openly criticize a President who they worked for.
Bingo. I know heaps of women who voted for Trump. They voted for the sons against a party who vilifies them. They voted for their daughters to have fair sports. The dems lost the script way long ago and the nation spoke up.
“Today in America you’d rather be born non-white or gay than poor.”
While I have no issues with most of the article, I’ve never really liked this comment from you when you’ve said it on podcasts.
It reminds me of the white guys in college who would make comments assuming that because I’m Black and sound like I have a brain that I must be drowning in *race-based* scholarship money. And that was 20 years ago! I got a one-time, $500 scholarship from a historically Black organization, and that was it. I graduated with thousands in student loans and credit card debt like everyone else.
Is your pie-chart for wealth by age-group normalized for the greying of the US population? Per the Census Bureau, it would appear that we’ve grown the 70+ population by ~40% since 1989. Just accommodating that number would, it appears, explain the diminishing share of wealth being held by the under 40s.
Thank you for a comprehensive thesis. However, underlying these phenomenon, was the data informed leverage of racial issues, invasion frame among the European diaspora, and Masculinity wedge among the former Democratic Coalition, especially among younger Black and Latino voters. Shameful, but our will be done. Demogoguery prevailing…
There is a lot to like on this blog, which has great suggestions on how to improve our country and alarming statistics that clearly signal the deterioration of the “American contract”. Many of the topics and ideas have been promoted by Scott for some time, now. However, I don’t find that these things are adequate explanation for election results for two reasons: 1) as the blog clearly shows, these trends have been happening for quite some time and elections were won and lost by both parties. 2) Rejection of incumbents and rise of populist leaders have been happening all over the world. This is not an American phenomenon!
Yes on both counts, it has been happening for sometimes and it is worldwide.
But it takes the arrogance of the 3rd Way Democrats (aka – Clinton/Biden/Obama) crowd to be blind to reality and drink their own kool-aid.
Reminder of history. Clinton turned the Dems by selling out to business world with neo-liberal economics into republican lite (aka Rockefeller Republicans), just think a physician/lawyer 1974 vs 2024. In doing so, he stabbed the working class in the back.
In here I got to mention Biden as he was a big supporter of the 2004/5 Bankruptcy Act that forbade discharging of student loans, I presume all his student loan forgiveness comes from his guilt about what he has done. W Bush killed and maimed a lot of working class’ kids with his iraq2 neo-conservative fiasco.
Finally Obama, people where hoping for Shaft and the return of the Resolution Trust Corporation. What they got was Urkle and bailing out the banksters. To make it worse Hillary wanted a shot at it after all the problems they caused and she sidelined the only person that could have beaten OrangeTurd in ’16 & ’24 – that is Bernie Sanders.
A strategy since the 2000’s with the democrats was vote for us because the other guy is worse. That blew up as their bluff was called in ’16, and they learned nothing for ’24.
A 20-year-old boy from Italy is writing.
It’s not about America, it’s about the State of the World. Through your words and the numbers I see myself and my peers. I feel the situation, the wrong and sad emotions of the period we’re living. The social mobility ladder is broken and we are not able to lift the economics hierarchy anymore. I am feeling as I want to take action, to change the flow and the state of things but at the same time I am constrained by the lack of attention elder people has put on us. Education and physical activity are my strength point, socializing and take action my weaknesses. I’ve written here as a vent. Thank you Prof G for what you’re doing
Scott. I totally agree college and vocational training is too expensive and inaccessible to many. Like you, I went to college in California where in the early 70s it was practically free. I think their generous investment paid off well. I believe America is making a STRATEGIC error by not making college and vocational training practically free. The current GI bill provides great opportunities for higher education. But far too many young people who do not qualify for the military cannot imagine getting higher education because of the cost. An investment in our young people by making college and vocational basically free would pay off in spades and keep America great.
Great article, as always. My (german) view is simple: like in Germany the people are fed up with all the wokeness, gender discussions, climate change etc. At least in Germany the people think, the politicians are doing their job only for minorities and not the majority of voters. No wonder, that someone like Trump (in Germany it will be a party called AfD) get more and more votes. The Democrates in the US just have overstretched their mandate and now received the bill.
Whiners and Weenies.
Scott. Always enjoy your weekly missives. But I believe you got it all wrong about the plight of young men. I believe the ones you talk about are just whiney weenies. I’m 76. When I was a young man we faced the military draft where the government could require that you serve in the Army. (Unless you weaseled out like Trump and Cheney – but I digress). And P.S. there was a war on. What would these whiners think about that? They would freak out. I went into the Army at 19. Got the Vietnam Service and Campaign medals. But will be the first to tell you I was no hero. Just a lucky guy. When I got out I got a job and went to college (the GI bill then only paid $136 a month so I still had to work). My first apartment was a converted tack barn. Spartan but ok. My next apartment was a converted garage. Again, spartan but ok. Two years after I graduated from college my then wife and I bought our first house only because the VA loan did not require a down payment. The interest rate was 8 percent. Great at the time. I changed jobs and moved several times across the country. As a result I progressed in life.
My point is, young men should quit whining. Quit wasting your lives on video games. Get out of the basement and do something. Progress won’t happen in a day but it will happen. Quit whining. Quit blaming someone or something else for your situation. Grow a pair. Get out and do something.
Scott, as always, love reading your thoughtful weekly posts (just as I am hooken on Prof G podcasts). I agree with the bulk of what you’re saying. I do disagree with your proposition of the minimum wage. My reasoning is as follows: innovation and technology is going to start creeping in even faster. Look at McDonald’s kiosks and notice the number of people behind the counter dwindling with every single passage of a minimum wage increase. At some point it’s going to become much cheaper to hire a robot, that always shows up, has no excuses, and costs about 1/3 what a company might pay for a complaining youngster with a minimum wage. Would like to hear your thoughts and your arguments for the minimum wage and how it is going to stick in the modern society, outside of what it does to the population of 18 to 24 year olds. Just basic economics would do.
I loved this piece, and have heard it on Pivot and elsewhere…so, as always, thanks for the thoughtful take. I agree with this premise, but after wringing my hands and wondering WTF happened, I’ve reached the conclusion that there were a LOT OF variables at play during this election: misinformation, changing media dynamics, wokeism, Latinos/young men/suburban housewives changing course, inflation, Bidenomics (whether you think it was good/bad), weak foreign policy….and others. I would caution that this was not as easy as it looks. Now, how to move forward….wow……that will be hard, especially for the Dems. The GOP gets to channel more crazy, and we devolve as a nation into first-world failed-state status….so, getting to a better place will require a lot of good thinking. Thanks, Scott for putting forth some really good ideas that warrant immediate action. We need good ideas now more than ever.
Great article . Offers solutions . How do we get these ideas in front of lawmajers
Trump won, quite simply, because the people have had a GUT FULL of woke: the petty and ever-changing rules about pronouns, DEI over merit, the all-consuming victimhood, “safe spaces”, being “triggered” by anything and everything (what happened to resilience?), guilt about Western values, destruction of priceless pieces of art and history, the anti-prosperity ideology, universities becoming woke madrassas, the naive NetZero delusion, the renewables fairytale, and I could go on and on. Who in their right mind would want to date a woke woman??? I’d be playing computer games too in my basement if I lived in a woke state like California or Oregon. It is time for some Javier Milei-inspired cutting of government waste and some bold, fearless, and common-sensical policies (promptly actioned) to make the USA prosperous and proud again.
Mic drop, Melissa!
A good article which I will share. In the comments section are two interesting pieces of information : When all the votes are counted, Trump did not win the majority of votes , and that at the time he was declared winner, he had less votes than he had in 2020 . This implies that a high percentage of voters who were poorly informed , or misinformed , chose to stay home and not vote. Harris ,as all VP’s , had little to no power in the Biden administration and did not want to alienate his supporters , or campaign by insulting him over his obviously declining facilities. She came to represent in the minds of a generally poorly informed public, as the candidate representing illegal immigration, transgender rights , and status quo when large groups are suffering and obviously confused.
I always enjoy hearing Scott’s perspectives. One I have yet to hear from him though is that young men need to “man up and get off their asses.” I appreciate that living for centuries with a privilege of unearned advancement and then having it taken away hurts more than never having had it at all. But women and minorities during that time learned they had to be twice as good as their white male counterparts to get their shot. And they did it. Instead of whining about losing birthright privileges, what if the vaping young man in the basement admired his sisters’ accomplishments and modeled what they did to create their own opportunities. We still don’t live in a world where women and minorities are just handed the corner office based on who they know. If men are now needing to play on a more level playing field, I would hope they would welcome that as a fairer competition, not a loss of the good old days. Of course, if they are stuck in that mindset they can always go join Trump’s new cabinet. 😉
The reason young men are in basements playing video games is that they social institutions that exist don’t support their ideas of how to go about becoming what they need to. Most men know what they want, but say they want to be something, and the choices are to go to a Uni and follow a curriculum, or try and find your way in the world, most people choose the latter because of the costs and risks involved. The world seems to reward the latter and be more accommodating if you fail.
“This election was supposed to be a referendum on women’s rights. It wasn’t. It was a cold plunge into testosterone.”
You got this all wrong, this election was a referendum for woke agenda/far left/gender identity/liberal politics and the results were clear.
I live in Africa, so I’d like to give a different perspective as to what happened.
As someone who has read and watched extensively on the issues, the left were the instigators of their own loss with the ridiculous woke agenda particularly with regards to gender. Women are sick and tired of men being allowed to participate in their sports, They are horrified at the number of children being butchered in the name of gender “affirming” surgery. They are angry at the teachers who are fired for having to use fake pronouns for children who are “transitioning”. They are astounded at how their children are taught that they can be any gender or identify with anything that they want. They are tired of abortion just being available to anyone at anytime as opposed to only being available in the first 3 months of pregnancy/in very specific circumstances.
This election WAS about women. Woman reclaiming what is means to be a biological woman, what it means to have children and bring them up.
As a mother I “identify” with this too.
Well done America – the woke madness needs to stop.
Agree with your take, Gina. Thank you from Houston, Texas!
Crypto is economic opportunity and freedom for young males/non-privileged/underclass. Instead of embracing this innovation the Dems under the lead of Warren fought the wrong war. Those were the votes that cost the Dems the election.
Scott, your comments are perceptive as far as they go–re: testosterone–but they lack a certain historical depth. In the 1970s, two new cohorts entered the labor market–African-Americans and women. Since they had both been, if previously employed, underpaid compared to men, young men now found themselves competing not just with each other but with energetic cohorts whose very entry reduced the prevailing wage. The young men you portray now are the 2nd or 3d generation to face this challenge, unknown in the previous history of this country. Their revenge, such as it was, was to vote against a black woman.
Scott, Team Prof G –
Another great NMNM couldn’t agree more. I’d like to take this opportunity to raise a topic that is right up your alley – hijacking of the election by the tech bros aka Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, David Sachs, Chamath P. Seems pretty damn evident the PayPal mafia has taken over our country. They’ve been strategizing and executing on a business plan much as they do with any of their venture investments and Trump was just a pawn to accomplish the goal for this election. Funneling hundreds of millions and inserting incompetent Silicon Valley cronies (see JD Vance) has been in the works for years and guarantee they’ve already moved past this election and are focused on the next. We need similarly oriented business minded folks to do the same for the moderates in this country and take to the democratic party in an entirely new direction. Scott is just the man for the job with his success in the business world, moderate views, and his care for the average Joe and those less fortunate than Trump, Kushners, Elon and the tech bros and with his mass appeal and megaphone he could
…spread the word loud and far. Just my two cents. And please tell Kamala’s team to stop soliciting donations their time has come and gone.
The democracy you’ve all grown up with was destroyed in the election. With A.I around the corner destroying jobs, and unfettered access to the worlds strongest military by narcissistic billionaires and facist religious rulers, there is no way back to the world we grew up in.
Gone.
Well said Mick. The results of this election are a disgrace and will lead to disaster with the incompetent jokers Trump is putting into his cabinet.
Powerful LI message…Thank you!
5
PS: Any relation to Frank Galloway?
Thought your 8/04/23 letter was spot on. Of course it was wrong b/c he opted to spend the last chapter of his life more delusional each day.
Seems he won hugely because – we are not ready for a woman, the bro culture turned out, he convinced us hell was descending on us and Trump is an entertainer catering to the lost soul universe.
Which is worse – an 80yr old managing any part of your business or Tulsi, Matt, Hegs or Kennedy. Surely we can do better.
I wonder what other parents instilled in their kids. My two children are in the 28-33 age group. They majored in the liberal arts but did practical things like internships that led to careers (not jobs but careers). They make more in salary than I did at age 30, adjusted for inflation. One is single and doesn’t own a home. The other has a partner and a house.
My wife and I made tough decisions in choosing our career paths, we took responsibility for our lives. That used to be a Republican value. Now, it seems that if you didn’t get what you wanted and made bad decisions that led to a lower quality of life. Your kid is living in the basement and has no ambition – that didn’t happen overnight and it isn’t the government’s fault.
The good news, Trump will screw it up and all those whining voters will find in 2026 and 2028 that their lives aren’t any better than they were 4 years ago. The “elites” won’t look so bad.
Your title is correct, logic not sure about.
The boys of America have been run over by the women and the gays of America. Single mothers generally have NO CLUE how to raise boys. They coddle them, hoping for the love their bad choice of mates didn’t give. They cannot kick them in the butt when they are lazy or rude. No male image to look to, so they go to on-line porn, violent games, YouTube, gangs.
Meanwhile, the primarily school system is run by women and gay men. The system rewards being ‘nice’ upfront, trashing other girls in social media. Competition is on looks, quality of clothing, clubs/camps/concerts. Gay boys are taught to be ‘cute’ so women like them. No mainstream male images in primary schools.
I was a volunteer in local HS, helping boys who wanted to be first in their families to go to college. The system was run by women for women. Boys were in the corner, playing on-line games and no one seemed to care. I did what i could with college apps, talking about majors, schools, etc. But, the boys seemed resigned to failure. Last heard, they all had dropped out to do menial jobs. Several of the girls got scholarships and have done very well.
The woke/left press seems destined to destroy any traces of men. This election is a turning point. When Joe Rogan gets 50 MILLION views on a 3 hour podcast, MSM and CNN gang is doomed. Watching both for a while today, they just don’t seem to get it. Men who understand what they are being fed are the first to leave.
Thank you.
Ex-Military (Honorably) MBA, MSF
“Nuclear energy feels more masculine than wind and solar — I’m hopeful Trump will embrace it.”
Sorry but this particular statement is just idiotic. An energy source is considered “masculine”? Why because it’s inherently more dangerous and expensive than the cleaner alternative? There’s reasonable stuff in this post but a statement so banal and plainly moronic detracts from the whole piece.
You want nuclear energy??? How about we first agree on a permanent repository for the waste? Something we’ve not been able to do since the first nuclear power plant was started in 1958.
Good article and interesting ideas. I note that many of these ideas seem to be similar to ideas offered by Kamala and Democrats during the recent campaigns, yet it seems like the affected groups voted for the other side. Because they liked swearing? Wanted to burn it down? Seems like a tough problem if the passengers on the ship we are trying to help are trying to sink the ship.
My thoughts, too.
I graduated High School in 1970. I saw in real time how Reaganomics, trickle down, primacy of shareholder value, the demonization of unions and the constant narrative that our government is the cause of all our problems destroyed the pathway for high school graduates to achieve real upward mobility.
50 years ago, I was sent to Management training at my Company’s Training Center. Two things still stick in my head.
One. Companies reinvest their profits into the company and its employees. This turns taxable profits into tax deductible expenses that make the company stronger for the future.
Two. If you want to be a great leader, you should understand Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Millions of ADULT workers are treated poorly and making substandard pay with lousy/no benefits.
Stand a mile in their shoes.
Trump is saying he is fighting for them, he will protect them from everyone who is to screwing them. Trump is on their side against the illegal aliens, Cheney, Bush, Pelosi, Democrats.
1973 – Entry level, timecard employee, cradle to grave benefits, $7000 ($57,000 today) per year and a future.
2013 – Team Supervisor big box retailer, $27,000 per year, no benefits.
My, my how far we have trickled down.
Best regards,
DavidBF
Wealth disparity. Trickle down economics is bullshit. Until it’s fixed. There’ll be no peace. Prof. raises excellent point about a minimum $25 wage. What would people do with it. Spend it. Young men living in their parents basement is a necessity. Need to level the playing field. Grocery prices lost this election for the dems.
Why is this despair you describe affecting boys/men so much more than women? High school boys are getting poorer grades and are admitted to college at a lower rate than women. That admission rate would be even lower if universities didn’t off affirmative action for boys (according to two NC admissions officers). We have not taught young men to make true friends, to feel their feelings, to go to therapy, to be vulnerable, to learn how to treat women and themselves. The toxic masculinity culture under Trump especially has reappeared, and everyone suffers from the results.
Scott, good to see the edge in your voice has dissipated somewhat – hoping other lefties can likewise be sober and pragmatic. Agree with posters of “parental responsibility” – I have 2 boys in their 20s doing great, in part due to sheer luck a great spouse and being able to get into the good zip code for schools, but also I believe because I did not buy into the general trend that is the WUSSIFICATION OF AMERICA. Which is what I think some of this election turned on – sure, lots not to like about where we are today (the referendum on failure) but also a move toward agency and, shockingly given the candidate, relative rationality via getting rid of celebrating victimhood and reinstantiating pride in being American. I am not thrilled with the individual on top and have my reservations but I can see the appeal and believe it will have been the better option for young American men like mine.
Someone smart said that Trump won because he was discussing what was important to people, the economy and immigration. The Democrats chastised people for using the wrong pronouns and forced their kids into trans story time. It was about the message. People were so disgusted with DEI and woke that they would even vote for Trump. Maybe simplified, but there is a point there.
The best article in many many weeks. Using pronouns doesn’t hurt anyone and facilitates dating.
I don’t always agree with you, but I always appreciate your perspective. After this election, the wave of “Your body, my choice,” and “Repeal the 19th” noise doesn’t suggest a hopeless demographic, it suggests malignant entitlement. I have a son and a daughter, both lovely grown people. At no point in their education was it suggested that effort or character was for girls, and boys could skip that class. You frequently say that money is a proxy for value, but that’s not what women think. Men who bring human value have relationships.
Your article brings up some valid points but ignores one of the driving forces exacerbating the problem: The cultural shift diminishing the value of the nuclear family. Single parent households have been presented as equal and just as beneficial as nuclear families rather than less than optimal alternatives. Pew Research reports 23% of children under 18 in the US live with one parent. As most of those homes lack the father, there is a missing paternal influence and role model in those households. There lies the source of the damaged men (and women) in our society. I agree with your suggestion of mandatory service to the country for every young adult at high school graduation age. It would instill discipline, chain of command experience, physical fitness as well as remedial educational needs including lessons in civics and our constitution. I think it is not a coincidence that the declines you cite began when Nixon ended the draft (even though only a small percent of men were actually drafted).
Lots of good insights and some possible solutions. But, at the end of the day, KH was a lousy candidate. (BTW, your party, is trying to pull a fast one in Buck County, PA. I guess “defending democracy” is on the back burner for now).
Man if I hear one more complaint about how the working class is getting left behind yadda yadda yadda. This has been happening for decades. Stop blaming the government, the immigrants, the elites, whoever. Take stock of your own lives and learn how to fix them. If there are no jobs in your town then move somewhere else — like many millions of others around the world. If your skill set is lacking then learn new skills — like many millions of others around the world. The one thing America does better than everyone else these days is complain, blame, blame, complain — even though it’s one of the richest countries on the planet. Grow up already.
Perfect
Not really perfect…
I enjoy reading your insight and your solutions. I feel like I must be missing something regarding why young men in particular are depressed, not working or dating. Men still are paid more than women and still control the majority of leadership positions in business, government and church. Why would they be more depressed than women? Regarding dating, you have referenced that women rank highly the man’s earning level, which is really a proxy for competence/ worth ethic/ dependability while men rank women’s looks as their number one attribute which is a proxy for what… shallowness? I am curious what you know that makes you more sympathetic to their situation vs supporting young women who are somehow figuring out how to pay for college, get a job and live responsibly while living in the same adverse conditions (possibly worse) than men. I am in agreement that a rising tide lifts all boats – thank you in advance for illuminating us using facts and figures.
Old men control the majority of leadership positions and get paid more. Not young men.
I agree – it is tiring to hear the same old caveman explanation that women value a male partner for his protection and resources and men value a female partner for her ability to reproduce. We aren’t cavemen anymore and now have a prefrontal cortex. Committed couples intentionally choose not to have kids. Women earn their own financial independence. And still they value having a partner. Being with someone you are attracted to, who always has your back, who sees you and can make you feel special are important skills that young men can learn. Yes, Elon Musk managed to have a boatload of kids, but still, no one wants to be his partner.
First time I have broadly agreed with you with occasional sense that you have reversed cause and effect, but I really like your program. The only thing is that Trump (I didn’t vote) is more likely to do most of it than Harris would have. My children are in their fifties (I’m 80), my stepchildren in their 30s and my children are harder working and stronger which rubbed off on about half of their children. I approve of the service idea but you have to warn not to make is too easy or too tough and toughness focused like the Hitler Youth. Deep down the step kids are discouraged about the future of the planet but they step up only in nominal ways. They are fragile. Having to work hard helped my children avoid this and I made sure they thought we were the poorest people in our suburb. That was the great advantage of the Greatest Generation – the Depression – and having days with no money for food helped them lead meaningful and successful lives. They were tough and patriotic and , like me, were trigger pullers in a major war (with better success in a better war).
In general your program could be nudged in the right direction.
Trump is projected to receive less than 50% of the popular vote when all ballots are counted. Close, but not quite a “majority” of the country.
He didn’t win. She and the entire corrupt, lying, condescending geriatric Dem establishment lost, and lost big. As Ice T said, what the hell have they done for us? Not much, but started two major zillion dollar wars in places that have nothing to do with Americans, but, every time they turned on their TVs, somebody was both lying to them and lecturing them. At least this time around nobody was telling them to Learn To Code. AI just killed that career.
Stop with the abuse of SS and calling it an entitlement. It’s a government controlled annuity program that we all paid/pay into our entire working lives. Imagine the massive senior poverty problem that would exist if it wasn’t there, because half of seniors have only SS to live off of. They aren’t all driving BMWs and traveling in Europe.
Billy should just put the game controller down, hike his pants back up, come out of his womb cellar, and join the human race. Enough already.
It’s not entirely true that the old folks have been given a bye. The zero rate economy has not been paying them for their savings. Of course it’s tough to cry for the old folks because they don’t have that much left to be sorry for. But the policy of deficit spending will hurt everybody young or old, and maybe not even in the long run Sooner than you think
To be clear, “Vice President Kamala Harris finished with a slim majority of support from Hispanic voters, at 53%, while Trump vacuumed up about 45%,” the linked NBC article states. Readers might understand your phrasing to mean Trump received 13 percent more votes from Hispanic voters than Harris did. Harris won 7 percent more, according to fact. Important to be clear on this even though some people will go around saying vaguely and falsely that Trump won the Hispanic vote. Big gains in this voter cohort, obviously, but not a majority.
The advantage of old age is that after living through so many presidents, I know America will survive DJT just fine. What I don’t know is whether we can survive the hollowing out of the middle class.
Your confidence in your country is encouraging , but none of the presidents you have survived had the character of DJT , and none had complete control of the congress, and supreme court , and the backing of the richest man in the world.
Everything you said about American young men is still what I’ll called first world privileges. Young men who chose to live in the basement of their parents, vape and play video games all day do so because there is a basement to live in and parents to feed their indulgence. It is not for lack of opportunities. Based on your conclusion, it seems the young women that are succeeding in what they do, live in a different America not the same one as the men you described. Going back to why Kamala lost, she lost because over 8 million voters who voted for Biden decided to stay at home. For all the statistics displayed in your article, at the time Trump was declared the winner, he had less than the votes he got in 2020, and even now with 99% of votes counted, he had only marginally surpassed is vote count in 2020. It isn’t about the people who voted him, they will always vote him even if shoots someone in daylight, it is about the people who are undecided about where they stand. The people who wants to hide under “I didn’t vote for anyone”.
Your analysis of the 2024 election is undermined by a glaring flaw: personal bias overshadows objective insight. By reducing the election to a “testosterone referendum,” you oversimplify a complex socio-political shift and neglect broader economic trends. Reagan’s 1980 and Clinton’s 1992 victories were rooted in economic dissatisfaction and institutional distrust—not cultural tropes. Your focus on masculinity as the driving force ignores these deeper fault lines. Your claim that Trump’s gains among Latino voters signify a validation of “testosterone” overlooks the reality of shifting economic priorities. Similar gains occurred under leaders like Reagan in 1984, driven by economic conservatism and cultural resonance—not gendered attributes. This is about messaging that connects with disillusioned working-class communities. Acknowledging young men’s economic struggles is valid, but framing their response as a gendered rebellion misrepresents historical patterns. Economic despair, from the Great Depression to today, fuels populism broadly—not exclusively male radicalization. Blaming this shift on cultural factors sidesteps decades of bipartisan policy failures like offshoring and wage stagnation. Your “solutions,” while compelling, contradict your own framing. The 2024 election was not about masculinity but a referendum on performance, with both parties failing to address key economic and cultural priorities.
Your words… “The electorate chose chaos.”
Absurd! The majority of voters chose what they believe was in their best interests, and your post election analysis is as wrong as your apology revisionist view.
Aa a marketing guy, your ideas and views are good, but you keep straying to things that make you look silly and pretentious. Stick to what you know so perhaps we can learn something. Your preachy and obviously incorrect analysis of the election has long been off the mark, so get back to what you know and spare your readers the “angry man” attitude and get over the fact that the Democratic Party are nothing more than bad ideas wrapped up in a package of sanctimony and blame. Unhappy people don’t make for good bedfellows, and your explanation does nothing to elevate or provide ideas or recommended adjustments that are the reason why Democrats will remain irrelevant for quite some time.
The worst President in modern history, followed by a word salad VP chosen for her race and gender as an unelected candidate will require a complete rework to be relevant. Will it happen… Probably, but not for a generation. Too many leftovers will continue to drag down a dysfunctional party.
I suppose it isn’t surprising that Trump and his adopted party went full-cynic on our cultural and gender divides without pretending to offer any solutions. Just glittering generalities smothered in misogyny, lies, deceptions, coarseness, and collusion from many, many people who knew better.
And, still, we’re looking for rational explanations. There’s nothing rational about this election. It feels like the final straw in breaking the social contract required to support democracy. The promised land is not just around the corner for anyone except the uber-wealthy, as we’ll see soon enough.
There have been Donald Trumps before, and there will be others in the future. What’s different now is that his party became co-conspirators, mostly with its silence, because it prefers power over responsibility. This crisis has many origins, not least of which is the diminishment of the middle class that has been underway for nearly half a century. Social media, sure. Failures of public education, without a doubt. The dismantling of journalism, of course. But this runs deep and wide.
Depending on the translation, Rousseau once wrote something like this: “As soon as public service ceases to be the chief business of the citizens, and they would rather serve with their money than with their persons, the state is not far from its fall.” That seems like a quaint anachronism nowadays, but I propose it holds true.
Democracy shouldn’t be a lever pulled once every 4 years. The will of the people is not represented by neither the Senate nor Congress.
I have 2 caveats. I don’t think you can help young men (or women) without parental responsibility. If Junior is a 20 yr old washout but mom and dad have put a phone in his hand to shut him up his whole life, there’s not a lot our institutions can do to raise him up easily or quickly. And while I agree with nuclear energy, a second-rate crooked developer like Shittypants shouldn’t be allowed near it.We’d have nuke plants in a leaky pole shed with the plutonium stored in a fucking Yeti cooler.
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men” – Frederick Douglass
“The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.” Sparked this thought in me: The child (Trump) who has not been embraced by his village (Peers) will burn it (USA) down to feel its warmth (Seek revenge and retribution).
I have a feeling you are more than sport on. In 2015 or 2016, I can’t remember, Trump stated his goal was to destroy the Republican party pushed him away. MAGA isn’t the Republican party of old, it’s the party of Trump.
Think back to NAFTA – the Original Sin. In a fair world, Repubs would get equal blame for this deindustrialization POS, but Clinton was the one among many Dems (e.g. Biden) to push this through, and Clinton signed it into law. The Dems will own it forever, as well as opening up China to flood us with trinkets in an even worse way. As the then-reputed crank Ross Perot predicted correctly, there was a vast sucking sound of blue-collar jobs leaving our economy. It is still sucking. And young non-college men will never again see those jobs come back. The offshoring is just too great.
Thank you Scott. I look forward to my Friday straight talks from The Professor. I’m tired of hearing and reading everywhere about the tearing down of candidates. While I don’t lean the direction you do, we had a media promoting a close race and it was anything but. I find that extremely irresponsible. Yes, the polls got it wrong but why didn’t the media vet that information and report it objectively? Is anyone questionings that? I believe media in general should be the focus of our collective angst.
PS, the Ted Talk was excellent. Thank you.
I am a MAGA guy, and this is the first time I do agree with Scott. You found the real problems, and you suggested real solutions. I hope our leaders will do the right thing.
In the company of intelligent readers, it is embarrasing to say “Im a MAGA guy”
Why were there so many who did not vote? Apathy? Scott has been talking about this for years and yes it is a segment, but is it the biggest reason? Also Why did some wait until after they heard Trump on Rogan to vote for him? Oh wait he has the biggest podcast and these guys don’t watch the news…
I really don’t like the “raise the minimum wage” answer that gets thrown out to solve a lot of problems like Prof G does here. I believe the minimum wage is not meant to be a “living wage” – it should be something we would pay high schoolers to work in a fast food restaurant for “spending money”. And raising this wage, only prevents less jobs available for high schoolers or others to earn spending money. Additionally, this wage needs to be way less in the middle of Middle America than in the middle of Manhattan so one wage for the whole country doesn’t make sense. If we really want a living wage, then use some other tax incentive to accomplish it, like income tax credits or income tax breaks up to certain “living wage” thresholds.
Only an idiot would burn down their village to feel the heat. Your mind can’t comprehend how Trump could possibly be the better choice. Unwilling to call yourself an idiot, you must conclude that Trump voters are idiots. The irony is that your solutions are the types of things conservatives are talking about. I don’t see how at least 75% of your ideals could possibly align with the ideals of the left. Maybe it’s time to join the solutionary party.
If your guy actually does any of the suggestions Scott makes, I will gladly change to a Republican. And maybe Scott would, too. But Trump won’t. He will burn down our government, and that’s what you voted for. He will make everything worse for young men, not better. I will bet my life on that.
God I hate the title of this post. However, the proposed solutions I like very much. I have an 18yo son and a 21yo daughter. My daughter graduated from Berkeley in 3 years and has started her career in tech. My son is a freshman at SDSU, studying international business and Japanese culture. Both have emotional maturity, show initiative and conduct themselves with grace in the world. Men still have obscene advantages over women from a career standpoint. It is very hard to see them as suffering. Also, this is not just a macro problem. Parents have a role to play. Finally, I am done with pundits sharing opinions without actively doing something to improve the situation. What are you doing Scott?
I agree with this post. I raised two fully functioning successful sons as a single mom with little money. Their father felt he was too important to work or do any of the meaningful parenting. Engaged parents make the difference and it would be helpful for you to be including that in your assessment of how girls now are benefitting from the advantages they have had to work hard to create. I’m a big fan of your work. Let’s support parenting in every way possible.
I disagree that kids today aren’t making as much as their parents did. I believe your chart early on showed a negative trend. But, as a boomer, I didn’t make as much as my parents at the age of 30 and I couldn’t buy my first house until I was 35 years old. I think millenials/gen zer’s or whatever, are making way more money than I ever did at every stage of my life. Sometimes I look at the dissatisfaction or people and they don’t look enough in the mirror. For example, there as a late 20 something kid I worked with who was lamenting he couldn’t afford a house. I found an affordable on for him just as a start. He instead spent untold amount of dollars on a tattoo sleeve on his arm. Waste of money imho. Lots of people do not live within their means but don’t realize it. We live in an increasingly narcissistic society where most people live for today without delaying gratification.
I love that it includes action items. Scott is spot on with this one.
Literally the best summary I’ve read so far of what happened last week and what needs to happen. I agree on so many of the actionable items!
Scott – I have no meaningful comments or insights on The T Election post, only that your work is deeply appreciated and needed. I find this so much more useful going forward than the usual handwringing and blame game. Also, your thoughts on young men and kids, and how they navigate the world, are always well appreciated (I have 3 boys and have started having them listening to some of your stuff – it’s particularly helpful for them to get a better sense of appropriate times to throw an f-bomb into the conversation). I’ll also use this response to advocate for a young adult version of your The Algebra of Wealth (don’t know what that means – maybe in graphic novel form?) Anyway, keep up the good work, it’s much appreciated!
Very superficial analysis. As someone that I had respected once said. Stop spinning old analysis. If you want use AI to help you write new original analysis. I know you’re making good money.
Posts like this is why the left lost. Blaming it on “dumb men hating women” is exactly the problem.
Trevor, I fully agree with you. Kamala lost the election. Trump didn’t win. She said she wouldn’t do anything different than Biden. Big mistake. She should not have been the candidate. Dem’s should have listened to struggling Americans. They didn’t. Biden waited too long to pull out. You know what happens when a man pulls out too late? The transgender issue for prisoners went too far. Immigration went too far. Not just the counts, but the costs. We live in a great country. Every president (or nominee) needs to recognize this is the America for all – not for just some who agree with your policies. Dem’s will never learn. I am an independent and plan on staying that way until someone shows me they can do the right thing for ALL Americans.
I wish Harris had done an ad countering that transgender prisoner ad because what she was saying was that she would “follow the same law that the Trump administration was following” at the time. Crazy how such a small small amount of people who are transgender, warped the minds of so many, and yet Trump didn’t.