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Comment by JoeAltmaier | Hacker News Reader

In the USA we have everything but this - you can rent an assistant, a concierge, a translator, a wedding planner, a prostitute. But not a friend. Why have we not thought of this?

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There's this message about true friendship & true love neither of which can be bought. I think it's pretty strong in Western culture. That's why we also don't rent spouses and even renting a prostitute has pretty bad vibe.

You can rent a therapist, which seems to be the primary purpose of these rent-a-friends.

> you can rent a prostitute. But not a friend. Why have we not thought of this?

Escorts don't just do sex work. In addition to sex, this is a good deal of what escorting is, depending on who one's clients are and what they are looking for.

They do the most important thing - they leave.

Well there's this: http://rentafriend.com/

I have. :) I suspect that it wouldn't lend itself as well to USA culture as it might to Japanese.

Because it's really sad and pathetic.

Wouldn't it be sadder and even more pathetic to be lonely and refuse to take action to alleviate that loneliness even a little, for even a short time?

I really wish this for you: May you never be lonely enough in your life to consider something like this, but if you ever find yourself at such a point in your life, then at that point, the weird feeling you would feel when pondering the dilemma of someone who would pay for friendship, that feeling is called empathy.

Then I guess I don't have any because I'm perfectly content being alone. Being around others isn't very stimulating.

Alone != lonely

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