Some organizations had lost members, others had sprung up in their place. The very concern sparked by Putnam's lament was itself, Ladd suggested, a sign of America's still abundant supply of social capital. In many respects, Ladd's central thesis is undermined by the data assembled by Putnam. Traditional neighbourhood risk factors such as high poverty and residential mobility are not as significant as most people assume. Places have higher crime rates in large part because people don t participate in community organizations, don t supervise younger people, and aren t linked through networks of friends.
Social capital can help to mitigate the insidious effects of socioeconomic disadvantage.
There appears to be a strong relationship between the possession of social capital and better health. As a rough rule of thumb, if you belong to no groups but decide to join one, you cut your risk of dying over the next year in half . Regular club attendance, volunteering, entertaining, or church attendance is the happiness equivalent of getting a college degree or more than doubling your income. Putnam s discussion of social capital provides informal educators with a powerful rationale for their activities after all the classic working environment for the informal educator is the group, club or organization. The evidence and analysis also provides a stunning case against those who want to target work towards those who present the most significant problems and tie informal educators activities to the achievement of specific outcomes in individuals.