(Originally posted with photo(s) at http://dlamini-dlamini.blogspot.com/)I walked into a convenience store around 10 p.m. on Friday 18th July 2008, bought something and came out.
I searched my pockets for the bicycle key and thought: "I must have left it on the bicycle", and indeed I had, as the photo shows. This must surely be the moment of truth for any society...the answer to the question: "how much can we rely on each other?" ...this is social capital.
This was not the first time I had done this. In fact, that very day, I left the bicycle in the covered parking at the train station, for which I pay a monthly fee for, and soon after boarding the train, realised that I did not have the key with me, which meant it was on the bicycle that it is meant to lock. I was in no state of worry as I had done this before.
It is perhaps interesting that high social capital is not considered much in classical economic measures. However, a high level of interpersonal trust lowers the cost of security measure and increases the efficiency of an economic system.
Dare I say: "If it is efficiency that you seek, then strive to make the members of the social grouping as cohesive (bonded together) as possible".
