BTW, note that there have been two entries on closely related themes for the Cause Exploration Prize: here and here.
I think it is curious that effective altruism doesn’t talk more about friendships or, more broadly, relationships. As far as I understand, relationships are a key determinant of happiness. Also, relationships are one of the first things that come to mind when objective list theorists try to explain to hedonists what might matter in addition to happiness. Relationships thus seem important.
They also seems neglected: I can remember few deliberate policy interventions aimed at promoting good relationships. It might be such a cross-cutting and vague issue that it simply didn’t occur to many that the broad goal of promoting good relationships merits intense attention.
One obvious tangible solution: legalizing dense housing.
On top of all the ecological, economic, and health reasons why we already need to do that, low-density suburbia puts physical distance between everyone, preventing us from forming relationships. We could place special emphasis on housing projects that include communal hangout areas/recreation facilities, as well as old-fashioned community centers.
More thoughts on roommates as a solution for loneliness in this post I wrote: How to Make Billions of Dollars Reducing Loneliness. (Have learned more about the topic since writing that post; can share if people are interested)
I love this post.
BTW, note that there have been two entries on closely related themes for the Cause Exploration Prize: here and here.
I think it is curious that effective altruism doesn’t talk more about friendships or, more broadly, relationships. As far as I understand, relationships are a key determinant of happiness. Also, relationships are one of the first things that come to mind when objective list theorists try to explain to hedonists what might matter in addition to happiness. Relationships thus seem important.
They also seems neglected: I can remember few deliberate policy interventions aimed at promoting good relationships. It might be such a cross-cutting and vague issue that it simply didn’t occur to many that the broad goal of promoting good relationships merits intense attention.
It’s a bit harder to see how it’s tractable.
One obvious tangible solution: legalizing dense housing.
On top of all the ecological, economic, and health reasons why we already need to do that, low-density suburbia puts physical distance between everyone, preventing us from forming relationships. We could place special emphasis on housing projects that include communal hangout areas/recreation facilities, as well as old-fashioned community centers.
I agree dense housing would help. Another idea is more group houses. It seems that there’s an excess of big houses in the US right now: https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-growing-problem-in-real-estate-too-many-too-big-houses-11553181782
More thoughts on roommates as a solution for loneliness in this post I wrote: How to Make Billions of Dollars Reducing Loneliness. (Have learned more about the topic since writing that post; can share if people are interested)
Thanks!
“It’s a bit harder to see how it’s tractable. ”
Yeah that’s the hard one, did the best I could here but obviously most of my suggestions are not super practical/realistic.