>>509235026ok, you don't understand that fewer doesn't mean 0 necessarily.
People report fewer friends on average than in the past. That's a trend Putnam famously observed and warned about in Bowling Alone. That means more people have no friends as well, but many people have friends but fewer than they would have if they were born in 1950. And the funny thing is, you brought up friends specifically, I talked initially about being part of an identity group or collective, which is related but still very different. You can have friends and be culturally+ethnically Chinese and you can have friends and be culturally+ethnically Norwegian, but you can't be culturally Norwegian and Chinese at the same time, at best a weird mix.
And yes, a "nanny" state shapes culture because it influences deeply how people behave, are you dense: You drive on the right side, the Brits drive on the left side. Why? Because it's the legal requirement. That's a massive cultural trait on which side of the street you drive.
"The state can't dictate the side I drive my car on, they can just punish me for wrong-way driving"