America's loneliness crisis, and how we could fix it by emulating Denmark. (Reagan, regular)

[SeaMaj7]

Why are the left such control FREAKS?

[20yrsinBranson]

In connection with my business, I put on 4,000 miles a month. If I am "lonely" it is not because of that. It is because most people have become so stupid that are incapable of carrying on an intelligent conversation. That's why I spend a good deal of time here, on CD.

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Denmark doesn't have the cradle to grave, suckle at the gov. teet section of the population that America has thanks to Democrats and liberal policies. The Danes may not live to work but they do indeed work to live unlike a huge portion of America that does't work and has no intention on working. Anyone who has spent any time in Denmark is lying if they compare it to the US without pointing out these huge differences. Many leftist would love the "free stuff" side of Denmark but don't want anything to do with the reality of Denmark.

[20yrsinBranson]

Originally Posted by craigiri

There are nuances involved - if you spend 2-4 hours per day in your car (generally alone).....and you certainly know that Rushbo has been the "companion" for many for more hours than that (he was originally the "friend" for many traveling salesmen)......and then you actually work and take care of yourself, it doesn't leave as many hours in the day for being nice.

Really. It does come down to time. When I was a guest at the large factory in Denmark I stayed at a guest house at the edge of the property. We had a nice breakfast there, joined by some of the employees. Then we walked over to the plant and they started work at about 9am. At 11:30 they didn't want to enter into anything new because lunch was coming...at 12:15 or so we headed back to lunch, toasted with snapps and had nice conversations. Then at 1:15 we headed back to the plant until 3:30 or 4, depending on the day of the week. Most workers biked or walked to work.

Compare that with those who have to get up at dark to get things going...and then drive an hour (or total of one hour from leaving to walking into the office or job) and the same on the way home...and, while at work, they have to put in 8-10 (or more!) serious hours.

There is a difference. A big difference. I've done both over the years and I can vouch for it.

When we were younger we'd often go to Club Med for our vacations - for one week. Club Med is a very social and international place so we'd be sitting down with French, Belgians, Germans and many others at meals. One couple asked us how long we were staying. When we answered one week they looked shocked "Our doctor told us that humans don't even start really relaxing until 10 days in"....and they normally take 2-3 weeks.

The difference is not simply cars. It's whether you have a consumer society or a human one. The two are not compatible...by most measures. A consumer society is happy when the GDP goes up due to more prisons or more expensive medical care or more use of resources. A human one measures other things.

I refer you to the many stories about life span and depression and loneliness in the USA.

Oh, they don't have gun culture either. Gated communities? Not that I saw. Glorification of their military? Nope.

It's always an interesting discussion because the USA is certainly not going to change and adopt human-centered society. It doesn't pay in dollars. It pays only in satisfaction and happiness and personal security.

I'll take the dollars, thanks.

[GearHeadDave]

Comparisons between the need for automobiles in a tiny country like Denmark, and a huge landmass like the USA are meaningless.

If we have a loneliness crisis it is because of our culture and our addiction to electronic devices and the mindless garbage constantly flowing from the entertainment industry. Couple that with the disintegration of the family unit and the increasing divisions in the USA and you have your answer.

[tamajane]

In the US car culture actually used to be part of or even the center of socializing. The kids would all cruise around and meet that way. There were drive-in movies and drive-in restaurants. That way of life is gone, and kids can hardly afford cars anyway even if they wanted them.

The remnants of social car culture are tuner cars and now those coal rolling diesel trucks, which is pretty low brow and degenerate. Otherwise it's old people at car shows being nostalgic or tatted up street outlaws with lowriders acting ghetto. So, US car culture as Americana is cooked. It's like mall culture, a degeneration, then death.

I don't know how to get people to interact but putting them all on trains and busses won't do it, no one talks on the public transportation now, unless it is to complain or fight. Look what happens on airplanes. More and more, people just want to be with their own social, economic and political classes.

Americans can be incredibly stubborn and spoiled as well. My neighbors do not want to attend to their hazardous trees and overgrown weeds, so they avoid me, knowing they are in the wrong. The other one is just lazy. I have no problem with all of us pitching in and working together, sharing some costs and efforts, but they have no interest. They have plenty of money so it isn't that, it is just a stubbornness that they can do what they want, they can't be bothered, or if I get frustrated enough maybe they think I'll just pay for all of it, and that is not neighborliness or a sense of community. It is selfish and short sighted, unfortunately a lot of Americans are like this.

[Brave New World]

Originally Posted by GearHeadDave

Comparisons between the need for automobiles in a tiny country like Denmark, and a huge landmass like the USA are meaningless.

If we have a loneliness crisis it is because of our culture and our addiction to electronic devices and the mindless garbage constantly flowing from the entertainment industry. Couple that with the disintegration of the family unit and the increasing divisions in the USA and you have your answer.

The Danes choose to live alone, however the Danes have learnt to deal with loneliness better than some nations and have deveoped a strategy to deal with it, similar to that being put in plae in other nations.

Nations where extended families and close family relations are still important such as Italy tend to be the least lonely and not the Danish, who are lonely but deal with the problem.

It should also be noted that Scandinavians and North Europeam as a whole, seem to adjust more easily to isolation than those in the South of Europe.

Originally Posted by The Guardian

According to People in the EU, a new publication from Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, Denmark boasts by far the highest proportion of single-person households of any country in the European Union, at 45%. Finland, the country with the next highest share, has only 40.8%. In the UK it is 30.6%. In Spain, 23.2%. According to figures from Statistics

Denmark, the phenomenon of alene-kultur, as the Danes call it, has been on the march for decades, with the proportion of Danes living alone rising by 42% since 1986.

“Part of the equation relates to social norms,” argues Maria Iacovou, reader in quantitative sociology at Cambridge University, an expert on European living arrangements. “If you’re looking at young adults particularly, certainly in Italy, if a young man wanted to go and live alone, people might say ‘what’s wrong with his family?’, whereas in the Scandinavian countries they might ask what’s wrong with a young person if they are living with their parents when they are 29.”

Denmark is a highly individualist society, according to the Hofstede centre, which analyses national cultures according to the “cultural dimensions” theory of Dutch sociologist Geert Hofstede.

Home alone nation: how the Danes fell in love with the idea of solitary living - The Guardian

[craigiri]

Originally Posted by TheMoreYouKnow

Denmark doesn't have the cradle to grave, suckle at the gov. teet section of the population that America has thanks to Democrats and liberal policies. The Danes may not live to work but they do indeed work to live unlike a huge portion of America that does't work and has no intention on working. Anyone who has spent any time in Denmark is lying if they compare it to the US without pointing out these huge differences. Many leftist would love the "free stuff" side of Denmark but don't want anything to do with the reality of Denmark.

I'm not sure what you are talking about. There are vast areas of Copenhagen where the population is on the dole. This was in 1990 so predates their current (worse) situation where they have more immigrants.

Americans, if anything, work harder and longer. The so-called "Puritan Work Ethic" is what drives the Northeast (liberal) and innovation drives California, an economic engine for the country and world.

I swear - sometimes I think many of our posters cut and paste their rants...without even checking the actual numbers. Statistics. Wealth. Education. And so forth.

Do your homework so you have have intelligent debates. 35 hour workweeks with great working conditions and about 7 weeks total off is NOT the USA.

Where are these Americans who don't work? Do you mean like the Kardasians or something you saw on TV? I've been all around the country and most everyone I know worked...except perhaps in WV where the jobs were scarce.

[doc1]

I used to commute to Newark, NJ by train and I don't recall steady conversations among fellow riders much less friendships being established to combat a so-called "loneliness crisis".

Same with the few times I rode the NYC subways. People AVOID making any contact, LOL.

What a crock.

[Volobjectitarian]

Ban it, tax it, or make it mandatory. Nothing under the Sun is safe from busybodies.