Children's development is powerfully conditioned by social ties, both family and community. Communities with less social capital rank lower on a long list of measures of child welfare, and this is not just because such communities are poorer economically or diverse racially. Community and parental involvement improve educational performance even more effectively than higher teacher salaries or smaller classes. Housing and neighborhood quality. Social capital is a strong predictor of crime rates and other indices of neighborhood quality of life.
Good neighbors are better crime fighters than good police.
Social networks and social support are unexpectedly important for health, both mental and physical. Mortality rates are powerfully affected by social capital. Although the origins of this epidemic are not yet clear, the prime candidate is social isolation. The collapse of civic engagement is not just a consequence, but also a cause, of the miasma that has enveloped our politics over the last quarter century. Representative government works better in communities with more social capital.