I love how the article compares the unequal distribution of sex partners with the unequal distribution of wealth, because in my opinion that might be part of the cause.

I would predict that being able to afford a nice apartment in a good area close to date locations will easily 10x your sex chances.

There have been other studies about young men struggling to find jobs that pay well enough for them to become financially independent, and there's been a lot of discussions about Hikkomori and the Japanese Grasseaters movement, which is basically older guys that refuse to move out of their parent's home.

My overall impression is that a bad economy and bad job market makes it difficult for young men to become independent and that makes it extremely difficult for them to become sexually active. Because despite all progress with regards to gender equality, the overwhelming majority of girls prefers to date a guy who can afford a nice shirt and a nice appartment.

What is currently called “depression” needs splitting up into finer grained categories because it’s become a useless catch all term at this point. I would argue that the people who are really truly rendered catatonic (and so likely have something seriously wrong in the brain that needs addressing with drugs) should be in one category and I would argue this is quite a small minority. I personally believe that the “depression” the majority are experiencing is more akin to what Johan Hari talks about in Lost Connections and it’s root causes are absurd societal structures and political failures which are deeply harming people. If someone feels trapped in a hopeless situation and this drags on for years because society is not providing any means to help them escape and improve their lives then depresssion is a pretty inevitable outcome.

In a modern day society it really isn’t acceptable. Give people access to low cost housing. Reduce the cost of education so no one is priced out of it or forced into massive debts. Subsidise healthy food and tax junk. Subsidise gym memberships and sports clubs for the poorest. Increase the amount of therapists being trained and make them more accessible. Pay people proper wages. Watch depression plummet. The solutions are there - why is there no political will to enact them?

Edit:

I have no idea why but people are reading “subsidise” and seeing “free”. That is not what I said. Subsidise the things you want to encourage so it is cheaper for the consumer at the point of sale and do the opposite for the things you want to discourage. The cost you pay as a society ends up being less in the long run. Less people ill and ending up in hospital means more people working and paying taxes etc.

Please don't take HN threads further into gender flamewar, or any flamewar.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

This is such a bad-faith comment and so dog-whistly that I feel wrong for even engaging with it, but I have to.

> Black people faced all the same obstacles in the sports arena?

No, African-Americans endured physical slavery for hundreds of years, leading to a disposition for physical work. Africans also come from a continent with the hottest average temperature, and in general are more athletically inclined.

And let's look past even that for a moment - why do you think some of the best players in the NBA are starting to come from Eastern Europe? Hmm, I wonder, could it have anything to do with the massive amount of investment into training and player facilities that is pouring into the area? Perhaps we could apply that analogy to academics as well, and realize the INCREDIBLY obvious fact that Asians tend to perform well because our parents have money to push us, we grow up in a culture surrounded by other kids who push us to do better, and we have _privilege_.

It has absolutely nothing to do with "race". It is an entirely privilege-driven issue (do you have resources, or do you not?), and if you still fail to see that, then you're most likely just letting your intrinsic bias/racism drive your thought process.

It's not racial, it's cultural, socio-economic, and historical. Things like redlining, jim crow, GI Bill (lack-there-of for black people after WW2) all directly lead to the huge educational/economic inequality we see today. That said, it's clearly not racial based, because you can take a look at various non-American black populations and see big differences in educational levels and cultural values. For example, Nigerian immigrants (both first and second gen) are vastly more educated than the average American. I haven't dug too deep into sources but here's a random article I found https://www.chron.com/news/article/Data-show-Nigerians-the-m... where they cite census data (too lazy to verify but one could do that if interested).