The great video game scare of 2017

America's economy is messed up. It's not because of video games.

Gamers play the Ubisoft 'Rainbow Siege' game at E3 2017.
(Image credit: MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)

America faces a massive array of daunting economic challenges. But Overwatch, Final Fantasy, and Call of Duty are not among them.

You may have heard otherwise, thanks to the media deluge about a new study titled "Leisure Luxuries and the Labor Supply of Young Men," which suggested that really awesome video games explain why young men don't work more. Researchers noted that between 2000 and 2015, hours worked by men ages 21-30 fell by 12 percent, compared to an 8 percent decline for men 31-55. And as young men's leisure time increased, time-use studies show, most of those additional hours were spent playing video games. This wasn't the case for older men. Or as the study put it, "Improved leisure technology played a role in reducing younger men's labor supply."

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James Pethokoukis

James Pethokoukis is the DeWitt Wallace Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute where he runs the AEIdeas blog. He has also written for The New York Times, National Review, Commentary, The Weekly Standard, and other places.