Social Capital

Your social capital can dictate how satisfying, gratifying, and happy your life will be. It is a main determinant of who you date and who you settle down with in a relationship. Social capital rules our everyday lives. We are treated in accordance to how others assess our social capital. If you live alone, isolated from all others, then you may care little for what social capital you have. If, however, you want a certain job or want to be heard then it is the be all and end all. Social capital and fairness do not go hand in hand. Life is unfair. The amount of social capital you are bestowed with at birth is based on luck.

Social capital is relative. You can be rich in social capital as you can be rich in financial capital, richer than others. You can have greater wealth than others. The financial capital you are in possession of can aid your social capital, but social capital need not depend on wealth. Social capital is akin to pecking orders. You are born with a certain amount of social capital and can build on it over time. Social capital can also be destroyed very quickly. The prominent artist, Rolf Harris had a lot of social capital until he was charged with sex offences. Fighting slander and libel is rarely about the financial implications, but the loss of social capital any slur brings. We do our utmost to protect our good name, for good reason. Our standing, our good name plays a significant role in our lives.

The Titanic had three decks. One for the upper class, one for the middle classes and one for the lower ranks. However, in each deck the significance of social capital came into play. In the snooty upper-class decks, people vied for attention and respect. They would measure one another on deportment, moral values, and strength of their family name. They had titles and various positions in high society. Whilst the least popular ones on that deck may consider themselves more important than those below, they still grumbled about the attention those with more social capital received. The same story played out down below. There are pecking orders on all levels. Popularity contests within each peer group.

We play politics to gain social capital. We shun and bully to eliminate the competition. We gain social capital at the expense of someone else's accumulation. The more you have the less others have. Our social capital matters within our tribe, group, organisation, workplace and social scene. Many want to be the top dog in their arena. They have no interest in what is going on in other arenas. You may want to be the leader in your football association and have no interest in what is happening in the local art society.

Whist we develop social skills we are born into a class, caste, race, religion, culture etc. We will be ranked from the outset and can lift ourselves from the mire in some instances. Nevertheless, no matter how we believe things can change, we will always be looked down upon by others. To whom we are born matters. There are hurdles and barriers to building social capital within the set of people that we mix with.

People will go to great lengths to improve their social skills. They become better in conversations, they gain trust and become more influential. We can listen more. We can be genuine. We can empathise and be less judgemental. We can say nice things about others to make us look good. We can enlist many psychology ploys to cement greater social capital.

Why do women (mainly women) wear makeup? They wear makeup for good reason. It enhances their social capital. Or at least gives them more chance of being rated higher up the scale. Attractiveness plays a huge part in the game of social capital building. Attractive people naturally get more attention. It is then up to the individual to make use of that attention. There is little meritocracy involved. However, the skill to apply makeup and sort nice clothes to wear takes effort. There is also a lot of effort and determination in building muscles and keeping slim. You can look good on merit.

Would you prefer a doctor operate on what has twenty years' experience and an excellent track record or someone straight from medical school? We talk about having 5/10/15 years of experience. The more the better. However, we can view human age akin to car age. A newer car has a much larger price tag than an old one - until it becomes a classic. The social capital we hold can be very much age dependant. It is also dependant on the culture. Some cultures revere and respect the elders. They listen to them and heed their advice. In other cultures, the influence is derived from popularity. Those holding qualifications give people belief that they are competent. Social capital is a belief system. Those with the most social capital are not necessarily the most competent. Brute strength won the day when we were cave dwellers so to speak. You can force your opinion on others by using physical violence and threats. This problem still exists to a fair extent.

Given that social capital is a belief system, and we may believe we have more social capital than what others give us credit for. We can be assertive, confident, and bold because of the belief we have in ourselves.

"You can't buy love", "You can't buy friendships", indeed this is relevant in the world we live where social capital can be of the utmost importance to most of us.

Whilst there is an awful lot that money can buy, what we truly want is bought from the funds of social capital. You may wish for a bigger house, a fancier car, more holidays to exotic locations or heaven knows what that takes your fancy. What is it that you truly crave though? Do you want to share all the spoils of financial capital gains with someone special to you. Those on the lower decks of that ship seemed most cheerful. Why is it that? Merriment and a party atmosphere in the pit of lowliness. We can spend our lives working madly trying to accumulate financial assets and security when what makes us much more content is good social relations. There is truth in the argument that where social capital is aplenty, financial capital comes along soon after. You after all have influence, power, and control over others. With that you can profit from it.

How many people will attend your funeral? How many people would turn up to a birthday celebration of yours? How many take any notice of what you say? Measuring social capital is not easy. Nor is it directly comparable in each nation, each region, or each community. You can't always put your finger on it, but I bet you could spot those with the most social capital in a room quite quickly. Unfortunately, we are often a bit too quick to judge, so expect to make mistakes if you don't examine the evidence first. The rich do not hold all their wealth in cash. They have property, gold, paintings, businesses and so on. Likewise with social capital, we do not hold all our eggs in one basket. We may govern the goings on in our family, but be unnoticed in the workplace. We can be the most important member in one sect and the least in another.

Social capital: social standing, pecking order, personal rating, rank, popularity, attractiveness, centre of gravity, influence, oracle, mate-ability.

The Chinese have put measures in place to encourage children to learn science, history, arts, business etc shunning the West's propensity towards fame and 'influencer' behaviours. Learning science may get you a good job and help build the economy but who is right? If being a popular, sociable, fun loving, out going person leads you towards greater social capital then is the West on to something of philosophical importance. We can't assume that everyone gets satisfaction from science and academic processes. We may have to ask what leads each individual to a gratifying existence. When you get older you realise that social capital got you to where you are. Is your relationship floundering because you were unable to date the person that would suit you the most. Your social capital enables you to get a person with lots in common with you. However, using the Titanic example you may find someone with equal social capital but get bored silly with them. They say attractive people pair up to make attractive children but the lives they lead are not always that attractive. We may focus our energy on financial capital for decades then realise far too late that building social capital would have brought more joy.