William Bornhoft

The State of Work in America March 25, 2014 The Minnesota Daily Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” is filled with expansive, iconic Midwestern scenery. The entire film is in black and white, which gives the sweeping landscape a barren and lifeless hue like something out of “The Grapes of Wrath.” But a second kind of lifelessness adds to the film’s backdrop — the idleness of working class men. Nearly all the male characters in the film spend their days parked in front of a television and their nights on a barstool. Viewers of the film may interpret these scenes as a depiction of the laziness of the characters themselves, not a general reflection on society. But the film — intentionally or not — accurately depicts the product of a long and steady decline of male participation in the labor force. According to a Brookings Institute report published in February, more than one in six men between 25 and 54 (prime working years) do not have jobs. This phenomenon cannot be blamed entirely o...