Negotiator wrote:Or can literally PAY people to fake being their friends, too.
If this is the case, then that means the rich person has no friends. After all, if your friends are fake....well... that means they are fake (i.e. not real).
Anyway, loneliness is a bigger problem in developed (i.e. rich) societies as far as I can tell. Poor people usually need a community in order to survive being poor. A side benefit of this is that they make more friends. Richer people don't need that since they have money, so they can live a life in isolation while paying for the things they need to live, and many do just that these days. Let's also be clear, this isn't limited to the rich, even the middle classes in developed countries are lonely and friendless as shit too.
I grew up in a poor neighborhood. There was more of a community there than where I am now (although, my street is unusually communal for some reason). Where I am now is all middle and upper middle class, and mostly white. In my old neighborhood, many people knew each other, many would share/trade the food they grew at their homes (to save money on buying food), people would cook for each other (it gave people an excuse to visit each other to pass the time... no netflix/tv/internet/etc which costs money). People traded skills; for example, my dad would fix people's cars, and those people would often help my dad using a skill they had. Often the people he helped with their cars had some skill like plumbing or carpentry. They would "pay back" my dad by doing that kind of work at our house (which saves money). People would take care of each others kids as well (i.e. to not pay to send kids to day care). Even though the community was born out of necessity to survive as poor people, it ends up building bonds/friendships between various people. This is why so many poor people are very happy.
I can think of 11780 reasons Trump shouldn't be president ever again.