[lbo-talk] Letter to NYT in response to Brooks/Rosin

[David Green]

David Brooks (9/11) claims men “failed to get the memo” regarding education and earnings. Data from the federal Current Population Survey from 2010 do not support that assertion.
 
Among males 25-34, over 27% had Bachelor’s degrees or higher and worked. Their median earnings were nearly $50,000. Among females 25-34, 31% had Bachelor’s degrees and worked, with median earnings of over $40,000. For all males, median earnings were $32,500, in contrast to $27,500 for females.
Brooks’ alarm about the decline in male labor force participation is also decontextualized. While 25% of all women in this young age group had no earnings in 2010, the same was true for only 14% of men.
The compelling stories are still about general unemployment, stagnant earnings for men and increasingly women, and still markedly lagging earnings for women when compared to men. Collectively, it is not clear how more higher education addresses these problems.