This year I ran two marathons in 7 weeks for charity and this Friday I’m part of a team spinning for 6 hours to raise money for Kids in Distress. I told everyone in our company (that’s 100+ people) about these events. Only two people contributed to the marathon challenge and no one to the spinning challenge. Clearly the support and sense of comaraderie is severly lacking. I realise people can’t give to every charity but if they all gave $1.00 that’s $100, which can make a huge difference.

Anyway, my point is location makes a huge difference in having opportunities for Social Capital.

Milk & Honey is amazing!

The Hoover story (or the Rubbermaid story or the GE story or the military base story or the auto company story) really show why cozying up to one company is not a good idea, and encouraging a mix of business growth is essential to success. Just like nature does with the astounding diversity of life.

If you haven’t already, I recommend custard
from Ros’. Best local ice cream around!

Kimberly’s story illustrates the value of friendliness and willingness – two other qualities a lot of people lack. She’s willing to pick up dog poop for her landlord to earn a rent reduction. He’s willing to let her do it. He’d probably rather have the money, but he likes her and respects her willingness, so he makes this deal.

That’s why this is a story about social capital, not just about earning more.

The worst place I found to fit in was the suspicious small town, because if you didn’t fit into the existing clique there wasn’t anywhere else to go. But a city can be like the internet. If you look you will find people with similar interests.

And some random thoughts about some of the points made:

*I don’t hire guys off the street to move me because they aren’t insured. This is true of many underground economics.

*Many localities have regulations hindering small business. For example I believe it is in Louisiana you need a permit to braid hair.

*If a stand along pizza place can’t beat the chain in terms of price, quality, and/or service enough to entice me I’m not going to buy there.

Small towns can be VERY insular, as well. In a city, it’s more common to have people moving in and out fairly regularly, and more welcome to new people, but in a small town this may not be the case. It can be extremely difficult to make new friends when people have known each other since kindergarten. It’s not that they exclude you maliciously, but more because they already have enough to do already. This isn’t to say that it’s impossible to make new friends in a small town, but more to bring out a point that they can be just as cold to “outsiders”, and people moving to a small town should expect it to take some time to build up social capital, it doesn’t come quickly.

I live in a larger city now and that concept is all but gone.

I’m left confused, as social capital (my understanding) is essentially the creation of a ‘bank’ of neighbourly goodwill on which you might hopefully draw if you have to in later years. You don’t accumulate it solely in the expectation of a return, but it is a consideration.

Working for friends and neighbours and supporting local businesses doesn’t strike me as part of social capital as in all the examples provided you were either a) earning a wage of sorts or b) saving money by choosing to spend locally and establish the goodwill that businesses may attach to repeat customers.

As the previous commenter stated—we do all need each other…

Buying from locally-owned independent businesses instead of chains makes a big difference in terms of maintaining a strong local economy. That’s not saying that chains are “bad”, just that fewer of the dollars spent at chain stores stay in the community.

Here are a couple of articles that explain why supporting local independent businesses matters:

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2008/09/why-shop-local-local-businesses-return-80-of-each-dollar-to-the-community/

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1903632,00.html

Thanks for sharing

Existing wealth is transferred to us by gifts, inheritance, government programs, marriage, etc. We create or produce new wealth with our bodies (physical labor) and/or our minds (ideas, innovation, etc.). More –

http://www.peoplesfinancialadvisor.com/personalfinance/?p=126

It is true. . .if you are a true social networker, you will always have someone to fall back on. . .if you are just a user. . .not so much! Great writing!

I also agree with @Janette about small midwestern towns making it a little harder to do this. I’ve been in mine for 4 years and I still get strange looks when I say I am from Pittsburgh. I think the people here don’t like that I am a “big city” girl.

JD maybe you could add in a link to an article about bringing in extra money as well?

Something similar… when DH and I got married, we had a second reception downstate for all the folks who couldn’t come upstate. I was shocked at the generosity of the folks in DH’s tiny hometown. We got about enough in checks for a deposit on our Boston apartment. Something totally unexpected but greatly appreciated for a couple starting out with nothing. When DH’s brother got married, they were helped generously as well.

But… everybody knows not to use the town mechanic for even oil changes if you can help it. Somehow they end up replacing your windshield wiper fluid with oil and they pierced a hole in DH’s cousin’s minivan’s oil tank and pretended it didn’t happen. Much better to go to a named shop in the town 45 min away.

I moved from a small town I felt very alienated in to a large city. Now I’m back in another small town, but less alienated. The neighbors here are so nice and friendly! I’m hoping something of this small town community atmosphere sticks and helps me find a job.

It was about how HR departments are just tossing or not accepting applications from people who are currently unemployed because they assume they were fired from their last job. I would hope that people in a small town would be more open to the unemployed because maybe they would know what companies were laying people off and the people who worked there.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Outofwork-job-applicants-told-cnnm-3498252371.html?x=0

My family recently visited Oberlin, Ohio (we are from Michigan) to check out the college campus for my son. I absolutely adored that small town, and actually wrote a post about it. Everyone was so friendly and helpful, it was amazing.

I am so glad everything worked out for you and that you are able to live in a such a nice environment. If only we could all be so lucky. My dream is to retire in such a town one day.

Thank you for sharing.