Social Capital and How It Affects Real Capital

Doing the daily reading for yesterday's class, it strikes me that we trust other people a great deal in order to live our daily lives. This includes loved ones, obviously, but I am talking about total strangers. How do we know, for example, that those driving on the road won't stop for us when we cross the road on foot? Their car won't be affected, and if more people got hit crossing the road, fewer people would attempt it. This would enable drivers to stop less, since they must stop for fewer people crossing the road. Clay Shirky in his book refers to this as social capital. If we wish to have social capital in our society, we must invest in that capital. Jesus called it service. We must demonstrate that we want to make ethical and moral decisions on a regular basis, for if we do not, the very systems allowing us to make money will break down. Consider the case if no one stopped for pedestrians. It would become more difficult to travel at all, since most people must at least walk through a parking lot at the end of their journey. This is part of what Jesus meant, I think, when He said that by putting others first, we promote our own ends.