What is Social Capital?  Is it the ultimate expression of capitalism, or is it an organic dimension of universal human development and thriving?  Let’s start with the idea off social capital as a misnomer.  Poor people, and I mean desperately poor people, often congregate in creative ways to multiply what little they have living in more communal arrangements, while sharing out of desperation if not generosity.  This togetherness is often a form of defensiveness as well as connection. But regardless of the day’s motivation, to survive poverty one must connect because isolation, the option of the unhappy funded and wealthy, can be fatal to the impoverished person who must live on left overs and the strangers body warmth under a communal roof.  If you want to call that “capital” than that is what it is, but connection falls under the heading “life or death” for the poor.  This writer prefers to call social capital human connection.  Social capital may be a sufficient term for the worried wealthy, but for the poor it can be fatal misnomer. The very poor thrive more on human connection which is unbelievably far removed from capital. Human connection is how everyone survives

The Covid epidemic isolated Americans and drained the bank of social capital enjoyed by many of those who worked shoulder to shoulder.  Thanks to the PPP some people worked a little longer, but in isolation.  Recent surveys suggest the worried funded Americans are more lonely than ever and we have not found ways to reconnect or “restore social capital”.  The poor were trapped in communal circumstances and had to survive the epidemic on a mask and a prayer. But now ICE has punctured the communal adaptations of many of the poor as they seek new shelter that cannot be targeted by the roundups. We, the well funded, have enjoyed their skills and labor because largely they knew how to live connected without excess.  Our near vigilante immigration police force now seems not to understand they are breaking up the critical human network that made much of America’s labor force possible.  But then this administration understands very little of the world beyond the insulation layer of the super rich.

Modest Proposal for Good

If children are the seed bed of the future, Human connection is the fertilizer for the present moment; moments of paving on the way to thriving. Capitalism cannot sustain human life unregulated and the term “human capital” is probably a more dangerous misnomer than we thought. We must understand that stripped of human connection in our lives, even the middle class and wealthy, cannot survive. Vote for people whose emotional intelligence indicates they understand this difference.  At first it seems subtle and a bit of a hair splitter.  Yet upon closer examination, this depressed nation needs something deep and radical to happen fast or we will become self-institutionalized and it all falls apart.  That would be bad.  Realizing everyone, Democrat, Republican, Independent, black, white, brown, Catholic, Protestant, Universalist/Unitarian, Buddhist, Atheist, Agnostic, left, right, Socialist, Communist, Bronco, Steeler, Texan, Californian, Immigrant, Native American, descendent of the Mayflower etc. etc. need each other absolutely to survive and thrive is essential for the future of this democracy.  Authentic patriotism in a democracy is tolerance, inclusion and the ability to solve problems together. The balance of the solution to our troubles is the fine knitting of human connection.  Understanding that would be good.  The rest is nearly dust in the wind.