Derek Thompson on the alarming statistics regarding male employment and earnings in today's economy:

If you isolate real wages for working class men, the picture darkens. Real wages for the typical guy have declined by 28 percent since 1969 and for men without a high school degree, they've fallen by a whopping 66 percent. Men once employed in construction have practically sat out the recovery. Since 2009, one in five has been idle.

It gets even bleaker for young men. The unemployment rate for males between 25 and 34 years old with high-school diplomas is 14.4%, the Wall Street Journal reported this week. The share of this group of young men living with their parents has increased to nearly 19 percent in the last few years, a 50-year record.