Survival of the richest: The wealthy are plotting to leave us behind

[K. A. Pital]

Regarding the drop in empathy in young adult age cohort over decades - it is real:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/20688954/

Psychopathy and associated disorders are also rising among YA
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~daneis/s ... ge2010.pdf

[Ace Pace]

Regarding the drop in empathy in young adult age cohort over decades - it is real:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/20688954/

Psychopathy and associated disorders are also rising among YA
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~daneis/s ... ge2010.pdf

I do not have the skills to consider the papers quality, but regarding the first paper. Could there be a significant sampling bias considering how U.S. college culture has changed over the years?

[K. A. Pital]

Circumstantial evidence suggests the issue is not limited to the US alone:
http://www.cityam.com/224759/uk-skills- ... robots/amp

[Alferd Packer]

I mentioned that it is necessary to give an option to end abusive relationships, which is exactly the case of minorities who are not treated with respect or even are oppressed by their communities.

However, the commodification of relationships (“market of people”) is not at all limited to, or exclusively linked to, ending abusive relationships: it is the idea that you can end any relationship at will, simply because it is more convenient for you not to have it. I would be wary of pursuing such a vision. Not out of any particular fondness for others, but merely because it has already had its effects on everyone:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/22/upsh ... ng-us.html

I would argue that someone who dismisses a relationship because of its inconvenience(or any other trivial reason amounting to "it's too hard") is ultimately doing the other person a favor.

PSI is related adversely to both social and health outcomes (hence my comment earlier that atomization is increasing the misery of people).

Disruption to social contacts has been found to cause adverse outcomes and likely deaths, especially in studies related to changing place of residence which usually involves severing old community ties and forming new ones.

The sad truth is that relationships are not goods which you can buy; if you lose a lifetime friend or a loved one, you don’t automatically get to re-establish such a relationship with a person of your choosing at will. Considering the inability of modern people to form stable relationships and families, it is indicative of a daunting pattern - long-lasting relationships are simply very hard to establish later in life. It is not only a matter of “marriage” as a traditional institution, as all forms of cohabitation, which is the strongest form of long-term relationship among humans, have taken a hit in our time:
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2 ... nered_age/

So my real contention with this is why early relationships are considered more important or valuable. Is it because we imprint on those around us when we're young, impressionable, and stupid? That doesn't make the relationship any more meaningful, really. It just means that that particular person--a parent, a childhood friend, a teacher--got there first.

I do agree that, as adults, it's more difficult to form a lasting relationship with anyone. But isn't that by design? Do we not use the benefit of our lifetime of experience to make an informed choice about our potential associates, instead of instinctively latching on to those who happen to be in close physical proximity?

So by saying everyone should atomize themselves by letting prior relationships be gone and “simply” form new ones at will, you are actually pushing most people further on the path of total alienation from others, with increased loneliness, PSI and all the adverse outcomes associated therewith.

I think we're talking past each other a bit. I don't think it's something that should be done as a matter of course, like spring cleaning or other periodic maintenance, but rather it is something that should allowed to happen, if one so chooses. In other words, letting a relationship lapse with, say, a sibling who's always been distant and for whom you feel no great affection should not be considered a grave mistake. Yes, their familial relation makes them unique--you won't be able to find another sibling in adulthood. But the criterion that you both were born to the same woman some decades ago is not, in my opinion, singularly sufficient to sustain a meaningful lifelong relationship.

Now, if you were to argue that, on the whole, people are not being equipped with the tools and skills to establish and maintain meaningful relationships throughout their lives, I'd most likely agree with that--but I feel the solution is teaching proper methods of emotional labor, rather than encouraging people to cling to early relationships.

[K. A. Pital]

The non-equivalencies between early and late relationships are due to the fact relationships are non-equivalent and not a commodity-like object.

They require not just emotion and interaction, but also time.

I could not have the same relationship with people I know for decades with others, simply because these relationships grew over years and have faced situations in which their positive qualities have come to life.

I cannot have a different person read me Jules Verne, Mayne Reid and Mark Twain as I was young; I cannot imagine being stuck in a flood with anyone else but the person I actually was with. I cannot relieve running across vast fields of sand in abandoned sand pits near the riverbank, or rewatch Brazilian soap operas while playing with medals, and hear the stories of the Queen of Egypt from anyone but great-grandmother.

These moments of wonder, awe, grief and joy cannot be formed with other individuals even if I very much wanted someone else to have been in the place of the people involved.

Relationships and much of human existence is ultimately non-commodifiable. An attempt to reconstruct your life after severe shocks often fails.

I have been moving around. I cannot re-establish the same relationships I had in the lands I was previously in: it is either time or something else that is missing and no longer there. As students and children, we normally have ample time at our disposal, thanks to the care of the parents, the free education system and the ability to socialize with many people around us. Therefore we have to think carefully about atomization and treating relationships as equivalent.