One important factor you don't mention is jobs. The unhappiness associated with unemployment is probably due in significant part to no longer being around people as often (though the context of who/where/when also matters a lot, so it's a bit complicated). Many people make friends on the job also and it's much harder for a man without a job to get married.
Nice! One specific caveat to this is the Nicholas Bloom evidence that minorities of various types (racial, religious, etc.) appear to be happier working from home, but I agree it may cause problems for some. Malcolm Gladwell seems to think so.
More broadly, WFH could provide a great way to test how much of the happiness drop from unemployment comes from not being around people vs. other things (sense of purpose, self-worth, etc.). I wonder if losing your remote job is more or less harmful to well-being relative to a comparable in-person worker.
A lot of creative interventions here. I like the idea of more support for fraternal organizations. It seems to me a lot of efforts here have been co-opted by the internet. We try to simulate community with social media, but it's just not the same. Reminds me of this quote from an Art of Manliness interview (https://www.artofmanliness.com/podcast/the-life-were-looking-for-podcast/):
"There’s always this moment where people are like, “Well, we need to connect more.” There’s not enough camaraderie, and so they’ll like, “We’ll do this group chat, or we’ll do Discord,” and this will be the thing and then nothing ever changes. And then… I don’t know.
It’s frustrating ’cause I think lot of people think like, “Oh, this will be it, this is gonna be the thing that fixes it,” and it’s like no, it’s not. It’s not gonna be that."
The community can't just be digital, it needs to be physical, too.
Thanks! My one hesitation about endorsing fraternal organizations is I wonder if they're just an inferior version of religious communities? And if so is this just a worse version of church potlucks and small groups ministries? That said there are a lot of secular people who could use a physical community.
I guess I could also say fraternal orgs connect people to distinct but overlapping social circles from their religious community.
I only have one friend who joined a fraternal org (Free Masons) and he didn't maintain his involvement. I don't think for-profit groups like SoHo fill the gap, and of course they're only targeting the wealthy.
Yeah, I agree it's mostly cultural. People in cultures that prize early marriage still pull it off.
I think a religious revival, which might bring along some of the socially conservative views you reference, would boost marriage. But even in progressive denominations that are pretty liberal on sexuality have a decent correlation between devoutness and fertility/marriage.
But I do think technocratic things like tweaking the tax code would work, but not to a dramatic extent.
One important factor you don't mention is jobs. The unhappiness associated with unemployment is probably due in significant part to no longer being around people as often (though the context of who/where/when also matters a lot, so it's a bit complicated). Many people make friends on the job also and it's much harder for a man without a job to get married.
Nice! One specific caveat to this is the Nicholas Bloom evidence that minorities of various types (racial, religious, etc.) appear to be happier working from home, but I agree it may cause problems for some. Malcolm Gladwell seems to think so.
More broadly, WFH could provide a great way to test how much of the happiness drop from unemployment comes from not being around people vs. other things (sense of purpose, self-worth, etc.). I wonder if losing your remote job is more or less harmful to well-being relative to a comparable in-person worker.
A lot of creative interventions here. I like the idea of more support for fraternal organizations. It seems to me a lot of efforts here have been co-opted by the internet. We try to simulate community with social media, but it's just not the same. Reminds me of this quote from an Art of Manliness interview (https://www.artofmanliness.com/podcast/the-life-were-looking-for-podcast/):
"There’s always this moment where people are like, “Well, we need to connect more.” There’s not enough camaraderie, and so they’ll like, “We’ll do this group chat, or we’ll do Discord,” and this will be the thing and then nothing ever changes. And then… I don’t know.
It’s frustrating ’cause I think lot of people think like, “Oh, this will be it, this is gonna be the thing that fixes it,” and it’s like no, it’s not. It’s not gonna be that."
The community can't just be digital, it needs to be physical, too.
Thanks! My one hesitation about endorsing fraternal organizations is I wonder if they're just an inferior version of religious communities? And if so is this just a worse version of church potlucks and small groups ministries? That said there are a lot of secular people who could use a physical community.
I guess I could also say fraternal orgs connect people to distinct but overlapping social circles from their religious community.
I only have one friend who joined a fraternal org (Free Masons) and he didn't maintain his involvement. I don't think for-profit groups like SoHo fill the gap, and of course they're only targeting the wealthy.
Yeah, I agree it's mostly cultural. People in cultures that prize early marriage still pull it off.
I think a religious revival, which might bring along some of the socially conservative views you reference, would boost marriage. But even in progressive denominations that are pretty liberal on sexuality have a decent correlation between devoutness and fertility/marriage.
But I do think technocratic things like tweaking the tax code would work, but not to a dramatic extent.