from Hacker News

Capitalism and convenience are making us lonely

by RupertWiser on 2/5/23, 4:53 PM with 14 comments

  • by blacksmithgu on 2/5/23, 7:28 PM

    Being social nowadays is like exercise - it not longer naturally happens frequently in our lives and so we have to consciously choose to do it. Also like exercise, it seems impossible when you start and takes months of effort to really feel comfortable about it.

    Given only ~25% of the US population exercises regularly, this bodes poorly for actively being social. I suspect we need to "artificially" engineer living conditions to push people together naturally.

  • by cbeach on 2/6/23, 12:28 AM

    When people write anti-capitalist articles like this, I wish they would state a credible alternative that solves the problems they attribute to capitalism.

    It's easy, lazy, and politically opportunistic to attribute social problems to capitalism.

    And ultimately wrong - because capitalism isn't some complex system of social organisation.

    It simply means the efficient allocation of capital.

  • by kelseyfrog on 2/5/23, 8:07 PM

    If having friends and community is truly valuable to people then there is a huge business opportunity to provide that value. What I'm hearing instead is that folks are complaining that something doesn't exist and then not being willing to pay for it. If you're not willing to pay for something then it's not really that valuable at the end of the day.