I try to be a fan of respecting people who aren't like me, but i'm not sure that works so well for human beings. We've spent most of our revolutionary history surrounded by our tribe and being either afraid of or fighting the people aren't like us. It seems to me tha that human urge to belong is so fundamental that we kind of have to fix that. I think there is potentially a role for governments play in engineering opportunities for people to do things together. Ecause when people do things with people who are different to them, that's when they often find what they have in common.
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.