Bouth is that over s like to talk about austerity and belt tightening, but they don't really do it. As certainly in absolute terms, corrected for inflation, real spending is larger as a percentage of gd pets,. somewhat flat or growing. And most westmost o the west, iv ses bumps and changes during recessions or corona. But if you look at u k government spending in the 20 20 or 20 19, before the pandamic, it's much larger than it was in 20 ten or 20 or two thousand so it's not really an austere time. A libraries, the question is, where is it being spentan thatis true. So libraries are
Author and economist Noreena Hertz of University College London talks about her book, The Lonely Century, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Hertz blames social media and the individualist, pro-capitalism worldviews of leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan for the rise in loneliness in the developed world. Russ suggests some alternative causes. The result is a lively conversation about understanding and explaining social trends.