28: 1. The Ghost Army: Tracking the Collapse of Work for Prime-Age Men Nicholas Eberstadt Book: Men Without Work (Post-Pandemic Edition) Nicholas Eberstadt's book introduces the metaphor of the "ghost

1. The Ghost Army: Tracking the Collapse of Work for Prime-Age Men Nicholas Eberstadt Book: Men Without Work(Post-Pandemic Edition) Nicholas Eberstadt's book introduces the metaphor of the "ghost army": over 7 million men of prime working age (25-54) who are out of the workforce altogether, neither working nor looking for work. This cohort, the "backbone of the economy," has seen a collapse of work over half a century. The decline is measured using the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR), which dropped from 96.6% in 1965 to 88.2% by 2015. Eberstadt notes this decline is generational, with each younger cohort on a lower work trajectory than the last. The severity of the decline in the USA is described as "strikingly more severe" than in comparable rich countries like Canada. 1936