Small town life has that feeling of connection. People are knowing your business. You don't have privacy. It can be very hard for certain types of people and hard for lots of types of people. As affluence rises in a society, the suicide rate tends to go up. PTSD rates tend to going up. Child abuse rates tend to goes up. And all these things that are be deviling America right now, they all are partly a function of affluence. So the point is you cannot actually have it all. Just that's the point.
Journalist and author Sebastian Junger talks about his book Tribe with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Junger explores the human need to be needed and the challenges facing many individuals in modern society who struggle to connect with others. His studies of communal connection include soldiers in a small combat unit and American Indian society in the nineteenth century.