New York University professor and entrepreneur Scott Galloway has a blunt way of framing what he sees as a crisis hiding in plain sight: young men are falling behind, and nobody wants to talk about it.
The Economics Of Masculinity
On the "Lost Boys" podcast in May, Galloway laid out the uncomfortable truth about money and male identity. "When men don't have money, quite frankly, they're just less attractive," he said. "That is more of a hit to them than it is to women."
The numbers back up his concern. A Pew Research study from last year found that 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. Sure, that's up 15% from 2014, but it's still 22% lower than what men of the same age and education level earned in 1973 when you adjust for inflation.
Think about that for a second. Half a century of going backward.
Richard Reeves, president of the American Institute for Boys and Men and a guest on the podcast, put it this way: "A lot of men now feel like they're basically improvising. They basically don't have a script, or if they do, it's a negative script."
His point? Girls were told they could be anything they wanted. Boys were mostly just told what not to be.
The Consequences Are Real And Alarming
This isn't just about hurt feelings or wounded pride. Galloway rattled off statistics that should make anyone pay attention: four out of five youth suicides are male. Men are three times more likely to become addicted to drugs or alcohol. They're 12 times more likely to end up incarcerated.
Reeves added that male suicide has jumped 30% since 2010 among men under 30.
Without role models or community, young men are turning to the internet for answers. And according to Galloway, they're finding the wrong ones. What starts as positive messages about fitness, confidence, and self-improvement often spirals into what he called "thinly veiled misogyny."
Where Have All The Male Teachers Gone?
One solution both Galloway and Reeves emphasized: bringing men back into education. In the 1980s, 33% of teachers were men. Today it's just 23%, and falling.
"There's this huge absence of men in the lives of boys," Reeves said. "We do not want an all female teaching profession."
The podcast called for practical interventions beyond just more male teachers: expanded trade school options, mentorship programs in schools and communities, and acknowledging that this problem exists in the first place.
As debates over higher education, gender roles, and economic fairness continue, ignoring what's happening to young men won't make the problem go away. Addressing these challenges with empathy, data, and real solutions might be the first step toward giving an entire generation of men a clearer path forward.