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1/Today's @bopinion post is about America's loneliness epidemic. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-08-25/how-to-end-america-s-loneliness-epidemic?sref=R8NfLgwS
2/Tons of things that are crucially important to human life are not bought and sold in a market.
Hence, they are not counted in numbers like GDP.
http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/markets-in-almost-nothing.html
Hence, they are not counted in numbers like GDP.
http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/markets-in-almost-nothing.html
3/Human relationships are the most important unmeasured aspect of quality-of-life.
Research consistently finds that strong relationships are a crucially important predictor of happiness. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-secret-to-happiness-heres-some-advice-from-the-longest-running-study-on-happiness-2017100512543
Research consistently finds that strong relationships are a crucially important predictor of happiness. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-secret-to-happiness-heres-some-advice-from-the-longest-running-study-on-happiness-2017100512543
4/And even before the pandemic, Americans were the least happy they've been since we started gathering data.
Why the unhappiness? A lack of strong relationships would be a natural place to look. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/03/21/americans-are-unhappiest-theyve-ever-been-un-report-finds-an-epidemic-addictions-could-be-blame/
Why the unhappiness? A lack of strong relationships would be a natural place to look. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/03/21/americans-are-unhappiest-theyve-ever-been-un-report-finds-an-epidemic-addictions-could-be-blame/
5/Are Americans socially isolated?
Sociologists have been documenting a decline in civic participation for a while now, but that alone isn't enough to prove the case. https://www.amazon.com/Bowling-Alone-Collapse-American-Community/dp/0743203046
Sociologists have been documenting a decline in civic participation for a while now, but that alone isn't enough to prove the case. https://www.amazon.com/Bowling-Alone-Collapse-American-Community/dp/0743203046
6/Surveys show that young people feel extremely isolated. https://www.addictioncenter.com/news/2019/08/gen-z-loneliest-generation/
7/Young people report having very few friends. https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/millennials-loneliness-no-friends-friendships-baby-boomers-yougov.html
8/A Pew survey from last year finds that a large number of young people aren't looking for romantic relationships, or even casual ones. https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/08/20/a-profile-of-single-americans/
9/Data on sexuality bears this out. Young Americans are having less sex than ever before. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/12/the-sex-recession/573949/
10/Some have suggested we're headed for an "intimacy apocalypse". https://twitter.com/roderickgraham/status/1295742499441582081
11/Could suburbanization be the culprit?
Research generally doesn't show a strong connection between suburbanization and loneliness...
http://www.louise-arseneault.com/CMSUploads/2019-Loneliness-and-neighbourhood-characteristics.pdf
https://www3.nd.edu/~adutt/activities/documents/oliver-hapconf_000.pdf
Living in NYC can be lonely too!
https://www.citymetric.com/horizons/why-living-big-city-so-isolating-lonely-isolation-loneliness-4210
Research generally doesn't show a strong connection between suburbanization and loneliness...
http://www.louise-arseneault.com/CMSUploads/2019-Loneliness-and-neighbourhood-characteristics.pdf
https://www3.nd.edu/~adutt/activities/documents/oliver-hapconf_000.pdf
Living in NYC can be lonely too!
https://www.citymetric.com/horizons/why-living-big-city-so-isolating-lonely-isolation-loneliness-4210
12/A more likely culprit is work.
Americans get very little vacation.
https://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/no-vacation-nation-2019-05.pdf
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/one-in-four-workers-in-us-dont-get-any-paid-vacation-time-or-holidays/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2019/08/28/what-does-america-have-against-vacation/
Americans get very little vacation.
https://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/no-vacation-nation-2019-05.pdf
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/one-in-four-workers-in-us-dont-get-any-paid-vacation-time-or-holidays/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2019/08/28/what-does-america-have-against-vacation/
13/And lots of Americans have irregular on-call work schedules that make it next to impossible to have a normal life outside of work. (These should be banned btw) https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-06-18/on-call-work-schedules-make-it-hard-to-have-a-life?sref=R8NfLgwS
14/So giving people more time off will be conducive to human relationships.
But also, providing for people's basic material needs would free them to focus on their social needs. https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
But also, providing for people's basic material needs would free them to focus on their social needs. https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
15/Things like national health care and cheap housing, in addition to more vacation, would free Americans to focus on their social lives.
16/The government can't fix loneliness all by itself. It will take a massive grassroots social effort to reduce social isolation. But policy can help, by removing the obstacles to a healthy social life.
(end) https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-08-25/how-to-end-america-s-loneliness-epidemic?sref=R8NfLgwS
(end) https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-08-25/how-to-end-america-s-loneliness-epidemic?sref=R8NfLgwS
