What is Social capital?
'''Social capital''' is the willingness of people to help each other. It often replaces [[money]] which people would use to [[buy]] the same help. [[Society]] works best when there is plenty of social capital. The less social capital there is, the more social [[problem]]s there usually are. If there is no social capital, [[war]] and [[revolution]] often [[wikt:result|results]]. People who have no [[money]] and cannot get help from [[society]] may have to agree to do things they do not want to do, or force others to do things they do not want to. [[Organized crime]] grows in this way, and so do [[forced labour]] and [[slavery]]. Most ways of [[measure|measuring]] social capital have to do with [[:wikt:trust|trust]] - people who trust that favours and help will be available when they need it will favour and help others more. Those who are seen as trying to get a free ride will get much less help. A social climber tries to earn social capital by making friends with those who have it but without actually helping. Some call this kind of person a social [[parasite]]. They are very hard to detect, unlike people who [[:wikt:cheat|cheat]] or commit [[fraud]]. When there are too many of these kinds of people, especially when they are [[politician]]s, people begin to [[:wikt:mistrust|mistrust]] their [[government]]. Rather than work with a [[political party]] to change [[law]], they may start to look for direct [[wikt:revenge|revenge]] for things. Social capital is a lot like real [[Capital (economics)|capital]]. The more money a person or a society has, the easier it is to do things and the better off people are. The less money, the more difficult things become and the worse people feel. ==Related pages== *[[Human capital]] *[[Social status]] ==Other websites== [http://www.socialcapital-foundation.org The Social Capital Foundation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106093824/http://www.socialcapital-foundation.org/ |date=2010-01-06 }} [[Category:Social sciences]] [[Category:Economics]]