Hmm... trying to flesh out the article (and escape the trap of individual vs social responsibility...) When the author says there's no cure for loneliness, he

Hmm... trying to flesh out the article (and escape the trap of individual vs social responsibility...) When the author says there's no cure for loneliness, he means he can't cure what ails his patients. As a doctor, it's very difficult to engage desperate patients you can't help. So regardless of whether you think societies or individuals are responsible for loneliness, the question is whether you can cure someone else's loneliness. The author answered in part by doing so, by just listening. But as a result, he also grieved his patient's death. There are many, many ER staff confronting the gamut of desperation in the U.S. They are not really trained or compensated to do so, but most evolve approaches out of some combination of emotional defense and compassion. Since Congress made it illegal for ER's to send people away, people have learned they can go to the ER for help. This is very, very good because it's almost always cheaper to solve a problem early. But it had the initial effect of bankrupting many (inner-city) hospitals unable to cross-subsidize the ER, until the Affordable Care Act reduced the number of uninsured's (accelerating hospital consolidation). Unfortunately, hospital systems are still reducing their exposure to these obligations. We need medical staff to cure people, parents to raise children, and teachers to teach people. We are no where near actually supporting people who build human capacity, and people avoid those roles because of the sacrifices involved. So costs are exported to capacity-building people, society suffers more costs as a result of diminished services, the marketplace is only accelerating the trend, and there is no vested constituency with the resources to push for political solutions. The system is driving to disaster. The author suggests a common dynamic underlying both drug addiction and machine addiction -- the hollowing out of will directed at personal or social goals. Choice, made subconsciously and then rationalized, is co-opted by a reward system dedicated by habit to the addicting behavior. And only takes a small percentage of participants being uncooperative to make cooperation untenable. In the patient's case, his kids simply weren't responsive, and they were all he had after his wife died (and he presumably had no friends left over from work). i.e.,: the system is driving only because we're not at the wheel.