NEET: A Generation of Lost Boys?
June 27, 2025
NEET stands for Not in Education, Employment, or Training.
It focused on the growing number of young men who are missing out on life.
A generation of lost men? The reality of NEET data
I follow the work of Richard Reeves and the American Institute for Boys & Men (AIBM) closely. Reeves is doing some of the most important thinking on this issue: how a generation of young men is failing to launch into adulthood.
“About one in ten young men are disconnected from employment and education. Most of this group are not seeking work, and very few are caring for children.”
In historical terms, a few decades is a blink of an eye—but in that blink, the world changed. Women have made remarkable progress across education, income, and leadership. That’s a win. But in the same timeframe, young men have stalled.
They're falling behind across nearly every metric:
Educational attainment
Physical and mental health
Labor force participation
General maturity and social development
Worse, they’re drifting without a roadmap. The traditional role of men as providers has faded, but little has emerged to replace it. Into that vacuum step voices like Andrew Tate, selling a warped and mysogynistic male identity that exploits aimless energy and frustration. And with video games, gambling, porn, and drugs just a tap away, young men are slipping into a kind of basement-dwelling, digital dormancy (see image below).
Even left-leaning thinkers like Scott Galloway have noted the political implications. He argues that a meaningful number of mothers—watching their sons struggle—voted against Democrats not out of love for Trump, but out of desperation for a stronger, clearer vision of masculinity:
“Young men went viciously towards Trump. So did the women in their lives supporting them... enough to swing groups who had traditionally been Democratic.” – Prof G (source)
So what can be done?
Frankly, I am not sure on a societal level. But on a personal level, every adult male can start by simply being a man worthy of emulation.
Show discipline in your work, your fitness, your faith.
Be a loving spouse. Invest the required time, attention, and energy.
Invest in healthy male friendships.
Generally, be a good example.
Because right now, positive examples of masculinity are in short supply.
Funny image, but the saddest life imaginable.
