I find this chart extremely thought provoking.  It illustrates a huge change in American society over the course of my life.  Very roughly 10% of the male working age population no longer work.  Each time we have a recession a few percentage points never return to the work force.

A few insta-theories:

• The discriminatory wage differential means women are cheaper.  As employers overcome their prejudice against women in more roles they are displacing men from those roles.
• The shift toward a service economy has created roles that employer’s tend to fill with women rather then men.
• The complementary unpaid home child rearing role is increasingly acceptable, desirable, or the best option and so is filled by men.
• An increasingly large swath of the low end labor performed by men takes place off the books, i.e. in a gray market.
• Men are inherently lazy bastards and as the standard of living has risen 10% of them have puzzled out how to act out on that.

More insta-theories?  Please.