Those with their cellular phones in their hand on trains are trying to “pull even.”

“Robert Putnam, a Harvard political scientist, found that there is a direct connection between the duration of a person's commute and their sense of social isolation. By his calculations, every ten minutes of commuting results in 10 precent fewer social connections.” (Arianna Huffington, Third World America, p.104) I commute for one hour each way. That means I have 120% “fewer social connections.” “A study by Swiss economists at the University of Zurich discovered that commuters with a one-hour commute each way need to earn 40 percent more than noncommuters just to pull even with the noncommuters' level of satisfaction with their lives.” (ibid., p.104)