Civil Unrest And The Financial Crisis? Blame Young Men for That

A boom in the number of young men can fuel conflicts and revolutions, according to analysts

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by Sophie Cullinane |
Published on

This isn’t great news, but there’s going to be more emerging market turmoil coming in 2015 according to the Bank of America and Merrill Lynch research. But we do, at least, now have someone to blame, because statisticians are claiming it’s all down to a huge boom in the population of male youth. (Er, makes a difference from blaming young women, maybe?)

According to statisticians Ajay Kapur, Ritesh Samadhiya, and Umesha de Silva , there’s a close relationship between surging populations young, male populations and ‘revolutions, wars and upheavals’. They point to ‘civil war in medieval Portugal (1384), the English Revolution (1642-51), the Spanish conquistadores ravaging Latin America... the French Revolution of 1789, and the emergence of Nazism in the 1920s in Germany’, as evidence that there’s a strong link between a country’s civil instability and a male youth boom. But it’s not just historically: similar problems might be developing right now in emerging international markets with large numbers of 15 to 29-year-old men.

The statisticians argue that when there are too many young men and a small number of jobs, then conflict, income inequality and unaffordable housing usually erupt. Things are worse if they’re unmarried, as young men have ‘less to lose’ by grouping together and causing civic unrest, committing crimes and being violent.

Apparently, the problem could be particularly bad at the moment in China and India, where sex selection of children has meant there are millions more young men than there are women. That means there’s more competition for young men in these countries to find a woman to marry, which can cause infighting and the equity of markets tend to fall. So, there you have it: young men are apparently to blame for everything, from civic unrest to volatile markets. Maybe you should let your boyfriend know next time you’re down at the pub? He’s going to LOVE that.

Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophiecullinane

Picture: Rex

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.

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