Male Roles, Obligations and Options for Building a Fulfilling Life | Scott Galloway

From 1945 to 2000, America registered a third of the world's economic growth with only 5% of the population. The majority of that prosperity went to white, heterosexual men. Today, the average 70-year-old is 72% wealthier than 40 years ago; the average 25-year-old is 24% less wealthy. Every day, young people are bombarded with 110 notifications telling them they're failing, while the tax code, deficit spending, and social security systematically transfer trillions of dollars from their generation to the wealthiest cohort in human history.

Scott Galloway calls his generation «the vampire generation»—never drafted, never asked to serve, benefiting from unprecedented prosperity and the lowest taxes in modern history. Meanwhile, young men are four times as likely to kill themselves, three times as likely to be addicted, and twelve times as likely to be incarcerated. The social security tax caps at $160,000, meaning a young person earning that amount pays the same $9,000 as someone earning $10 million. The two biggest tax deductions—mortgage interest and capital gains—benefit homeowners and investors, not renters earning current income.

The remedy is not affirmative action for men, but common sense: eliminate the social security cap, reform capital gains treatment, expand vocational training, grow university freshman classes, and implement mandatory national service. If America continues to optimize for the comfort of the old at the expense of the young, it will produce fewer marriages, fewer children, more instability, and a generation entitled to rage.

Galloway graduated from UCLA with a 2.27 GPA, failing nine classes. One of his primary motivators to go on campus was the non-zero probability of meeting a woman, getting her to a party, and eventually being physical with her. If he'd had lifelike porn on his phone 24/7, he doubts he would have been as motivated. That «mojo»—the desire to go out, dress well, work out, risk rejection—is being reduced by on-demand sexual gratification.

The problem is structural: academia lacks a «porn professor» because no researcher wants that reputation. Yet anecdotally, Galloway sees young men opting out of the hard work of real relationships in favor of a low-effort facsimile. This mirrors the phenomenon of sex expats—men who travel to low-income countries to avoid the effort of real dating. Porn is the broader, more destructive version: it offers a reasonable substitute for sex and relationships without requiring any leveling up. The fire that once motivated men to become better versions of themselves is being extinguished by a screen.

When a boy loses a male role model through death, divorce, or abandonment, he becomes more likely to be incarcerated than to graduate from college. Yet three times as many women apply to be Big Sisters in New York as men apply to be Big Brothers. Men are not stepping up—whether due to laziness, fear of accusation, or simple neglect. Galloway argues that men in their 30s, 40s, and 50s don't need degrees in adolescent psychiatry to add value. Just showing interest is enough.

He recounts mentoring young men who ask absurd questions: «I'm on a diet of pineapple juice and creatine—what do you think?» or «I'm quitting my job to move to Alaska because of a National Geographic special.» Basic engagement—asking follow-up questions, encouraging outdoor time, checking if they're working out—adds immense value. The ultimate expression of masculinity, Galloway says, is to get involved in the life of a child that isn't yours. The tribe must move in when a young man lacks male role models. This is the easiest, most rewarding fix available, and it doesn't require government intervention—just courage and commitment from men who have already made it.