This is something I've been thinking about for a long time, and I think I'm finally reeady to try talking about it here.

I live in Japan and a few days ago this article was doing the rounds on Twitter trends - it talked about this big issue - 'lost generation' (Gen X) women who never married but also never got careers because they expected to get married and become housewives. Now that their rich boomer parents are retiring/dying and they can't rely on generational wealth, those women are facing severe poverty in the future - with no husbands to take of them, no marketable skills and all the handicaps that come with being a single older adult.

And that got me thinking. Obviously, there are men out there in the same situation. I myself sort of am one. After crunching some numbers recently I realized that it costs much more to live a single life than it does to live life as a couple. And there are many men out there who are relegated to the single life not by choice but because they have no other option.

The man raising a family enjoys a lot of advantages. He gets job stability. He gets more career opportunities. He has his spouse's side of the family to provide an increased safety network. His children will most likely provide some form of support for him when he's older. The man without a family has none of that - while he's working he needs money to provide not just for his current lifestyle, but also for the lifestyle of his older self, after he's unable to work anymore. Both types of men will be paying taxes and welfare fees, but only the former, the family man will receive tax breaks and handouts from the government. It really feels like single people get much less back from society even when they contribute no less than couples.

We've talked about leftover men here before, but I think most of those discussions have focused on the psychological aspect of the issue - how miserable it is to be perpetually single, how it affects mental health etc. But what about the economic side? Given that an increaesing number of men are unable to have families, do you think society should give them some form of recognition and provide some help to mitigate the economic consequences of that? Perhaps even at the expense of couples' benefits?

To be clear, I believe this is a men's issue because I believe it's overwhelmingly men that become leftovers through no choice of their own.