There are still some out there, but so many businesses prioritize turnover to raise profits that it can be difficult to have a place to just hang out with friends.

“Your emotional and mental reality is less important than my physical appreciation/judgement of you.”

Referenced in a lower comment, but that loss of a meet and hangout place is often called a “third place,” as opposed to work or home. The show Cheers is a depiction of a third place in that it’s a place where “everybody knows your name” and the norm is staying and chatting, not spending a few bucks and running out.

There are some interesting suppositions about how this loneliness became more and more endemic with the decline in bowling leagues. People, men in particular, just have fewer regular hangout activities and so get more and more lonely. Things like bowling leagues, lodges, and the corner bar all were meeting spots to socialize and they have declined or morphed over the years, losing their original social role.

Yeah. Maybe solar? But it’s energy intensive. I sort of imagined these hypothetical folks were very wealthy and could afford tenders and the like to bring them food and fuel.

Lots of ships have water-makers that turn seawater into fresh water.

True, especially big community well situations. We’re the only ones on our well, though.

In the US. I feel the same about our well water. Completely untreated and so good.