How to Money · Wednesday, September 2, 2026
Wes Moss discusses the growing issue of loneliness among retirees, attributing it to a 'friendship recession' where making new close friends becomes increasingly difficult with age. His research indicates that individuals with four or more close connections report higher happiness levels, while lacking them puts them at risk of falling below a baseline happiness propensity. Moss emphasizes the importance of actively cultivating and maintaining community ties throughout life.
“Look, we're in a friendship recession in America and it's and I don't know if it started in the nineties, but like that's where the data, like, that's where we that's like the earliest back. I can go find data of how many friends we had and how many on average, and it's it is essentially gone down and down and down every year.”
“And our community is so incredibly important that if you don't have it, if you don't have four plus close connections in your life, then your happiness levels go down. And they're not you, You are at risk of falling below the baseline.”
“And it gets harder over time. And yeah, loneliness and epidemic. I think of it as like a friendship recession.”