New York University professor and entrepreneur Scott Galloway sounded the alarm over a growing crisis he says is hiding in plain sight: young men are falling behind in nearly every area that matters. From education and income to mental health and identity, the downward spiral is real and dangerous.
A Crisis Of Purpose And Income
In the May episode of the “Lost Boys” podcast, Galloway dug into what he calls a cultural and economic unraveling of modern masculinity. One key issue? Money.
“When men don't have money, quite frankly, they're just less attractive,” he said bluntly. “That is more of a hit to them than it is to women.”
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According to last year’s Pew Research study, since the 1970s, inflation-adjusted earnings for non-college-educated men in the U.S. have dropped 22%. Young men between 25 and 34 without college degrees earned a median income of $45,000 in 2023. That’s up 15% from 2014, but still 22% lower than what men of the same age earned in 1973 when adjusted for inflation.
Podcast guest, researcher and president of the American Institute for Boys and Men Richard Reeves agreed. “A lot of men now feel like they're basically improvising,” he said. “They basically don’t have a script, or if they do, it’s a negative script.”
Reeves said girls were told they could be anything, but boys weren't given a new path. Instead, they were mostly told what not to do.
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This vacuum has real consequences. Galloway said that four out of five youth suicides are male. Men are three times more likely to become addicted to drugs or alcohol. And they’re 12 times more likely to end up incarcerated. Reeves added that male suicide has jumped 30% since 2010 among men under 30.
Why It Matters Now
Galloway emphasized that young men without role models or community are turning to the internet for answers, and finding the wrong ones. The voices that filled the void started positive: be fit, be confident, take control, but spiraled into “thinly veiled misogyny,” he said.
The podcast called for practical solutions: more male teachers, more trade school options, and the return of mentorship in schools and communities. Reeves said that in the 1980s, 33% of teachers were men. Now it's just 23%, and falling.
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“There’s this huge absence of men in the lives of boys,” he said. “We do not want an all female teaching profession.”
As debates over higher education, gender roles, and economic fairness continue, many experts agree that ignoring the challenges facing young men won’t make them disappear. Addressing these issues openly with empathy, data, and practical solutions may be the first step in giving a generation of men a clearer path forward.
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