We are doing more on our own, and if you aren't on your own, you are more likely to have episodes of loneliness. This is something obviously that has been now, this isn't a brind new phenomenon. I actually worked in russia in the early nineties, just after the breakdown of the soviet union. And if there's anything to make someone very clear that am, am, that the alternative is bad, it's spending time in russian in the early Nineties. The form of capitalism which are really valorized self interest, am, hyper competitiveness. That that form of capitalism has a lot to answer for when it comes to how lonely and disconnected
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.