What is social capital? Imagine yourself plunked down in the middle of wilderness, Kurt, alone, without tools or even the clothes on your back, and you'll discover what it means, very quickly, by its absense, save for some of the knowledge between your ears.

We are profoundly social creatures, despite the individual delusion of separate private selves. And social capital, in part, is the mutual aid we render to one another, often without even being conscious of it. And no economy can function without it.