Personally I don't think it's the work/life balance that is different from 60 and 70 years ago the reason of loneliness. I think it's the combination of the wo

Personally I don't think it's the work/life balance that is different from 60 and 70 years ago the reason of loneliness. I think it's the combination of the world getting smaller, via technology, and the rise of individualism the increased standard of living gives us. From one hand, the too small world frightens us, it makes us want to shell ourselves from the big nasty world. On the other hand, we think we are special and the others around us not worthy of us. Greece has the exact same problem (which was made worse by the recent crisis), perhaps in different numbers, since family ties are strong here and people don't usually relocate to find work, but it's still a problem.