Young men have been criticised for staying home to play video games, but economic factors may be behind a recent trend. Photo: footy.com/Flickr.
The problem with young men is that they stay at home playing video games and watching Netflix rather than going out and developing their social skills – we are told.
But beyond the usual “men are rubbish” narrative, there is surprisingly little attempt to explain why.
Perhaps economics might be a factor.
Everyone talks about the cost-of-living crisis and how everything is more expensive these days. But that isn’t entirely true.
Going out has become remarkably expensive. Staying in has become remarkably cheap.
Household goods and online consumption have fallen in price – relative to income. You can buy a huge television, a gaming console, stream practically every movie ever made and listen to almost every song ever recorded for relatively little money.
By contrast, things involving other people – restaurants, cinemas, hotels, sporting events and holidays – can now require the sort of financial planning previously reserved for buying a house.
Here are five things that seemed perfectly affordable when I was a broke ANU student that I now struggle to justify paying for as a full-time worker.
Takeaway can now take away a large slice of your income. Photo: Kgbo.
A coffee and sandwich at a cafe
I recently attended a landmark event at Sydney Airport: I paid double figures for a decaf flat white.
It wasn’t that long ago that a coffee was $3.
And it isn’t just coffee. A banh mi was once the ultimate student lunch – about $4 for a delicious crusty roll stuffed with meat, salad and chilli.
Now $20 for a sanga is entirely normal. Sometimes you even pay extra to have two slices of bread with something in between toasted.
A hotel room
Then there is the cost of actually going somewhere.
Hotel prices have gone berserk since COVID.
You used to be able to get a decent place in Sydney or Canberra for $130. Now, with $200, you’re lucky to get a musky room, a stingy checkout time and two bottles of minibar water priced as though they come with their own sommelier.
And that’s before you pay for parking and breakfast.
Which brings me to the old student favourite: the trip to the big smoke.
A weekend in Sydney
When I was younger, the Murray bus from Canberra to Sydney was about $20.
You could get a cheap hotel, eat cheaply and spend the weekend wandering around the city without constantly thinking about your bank balance.
But as mentioned above, a hotel can easily chew through $200 or more. A couple of meals and a few drinks disappear another couple of hundred dollars. Add transport, coffee, attractions and whatever else you inevitably end up buying and a supposedly modest weekend away can easily run into four figures.
Live sport
I remember getting into the MCG to watch a one-day international for $17.
Now, taking a family to a major sporting event can require an application for early access to superannuation.
Tickets for a recent Wallabies Test were around $200 for a decent seat.
When you can watch the same game in comfort at home for almost nothing, the economics of going, of navigating traffic and crowds to get to the stadium, become harder to justify.
The cinema
I miss the old Cheapskate Tuesdays at Canberra’s Cosmopolitan Twin when you could see a movie for $6.
Today you’re looking at paying four to five times that amount, and that’s before any extras.
The Cosmo Twins offered movies for as cheap as $6. Photo: Cinema Treasures.
Then there is the compulsory Coke and popcorn, which can cost roughly the same as the national debt of a small Pacific nation. The ‘small combo’, which includes a small drink and popcorn, is being advertised at the local theatre for $20.90.
Netflix suddenly looks pretty attractive.
When socialising becomes a luxury
So that’s the unfortunate economic reality. Technology has made staying home remarkably cheap at precisely the time that skill shortages, regulation and high rents have made going out increasingly expensive.
This is a difficult problem to solve, but it provides important context when we talk about the so-called decline of men. Social isolation is not just a cultural complaint – data shows men consistently report higher levels of social isolation, which is associated with psychological distress and poorer health.
It doesn’t mean expensive coffee causes men’s mental health problems. But it is worth understanding the environment we’re asking young men to navigate – and the fact that people respond to incentives.
A young bloke can sit on the couch with a 55-inch television, PlayStation, Spotify and Netflix for hours for a fraction of what it costs to regularly go to the pub, see a movie or have dinner with friends.
We can tell young men to get out more.
Or we can look more closely at the economics of why staying in is so cheap – and going out so damn pricey.
Original Article published by Oliver Jacques on Region Canberra.
