How to End America's Loneliness Epidemic
Making people more economically secure is the first step to ending the "intimacy apocalypse."
Looks like somebody could use a friend.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images North AmericaA society’s success is gauged not just by economics but by the strength of human relationships. By that measure the U.S. is slipping dangerously. Bringing Americans together again will take a vigorous effort at every level of society, and public policy will have a role to play.
On paper, the U.S. is still one of the world’s richest nations, even after accounting for inequality. But it has many problems not fully captured in income and output statistics, but which reduce quality of life for its people. One of these is a high rate of violent crime; the U.S. has more than four times as many murders per capita as the United Kingdom, and more than 25 times as many as Japan. Another is poor health; obesity, opiate drugs, and other problems have combined to push U.S. life expectancy below that of its rich-world peers.