PUBLIC DISCOURSE: “Rebuilding social capital starts with 0-3 year olds”

Public Discourse, July 10, 2023

Chris Bullivant

The American dream has always been simple. Most people seek to get an education and a job, start a family, and enjoy their community. But increasingly, this dream is becoming attainable only for the wealthy and out of reach for the great bulk of Americans. Social capital is depleting: education, work, family, and community no longer sustain American society as they once did.

Social capital, which is the rich network of relationships that sustain individuals, can be measured by some key indicators, all of which are down: church attendance, friendships among adults, neighborliness, nonprofit giving, and volunteering. Meanwhile, trust in our national government, politicians, media, large corporations, national media, and each other is at historic lows.

Social capital has been studied by a variety of scholars across the political spectrum for decades now. But one area that deserves more focus from policymakers is the crucial formation we receive in the earliest years of life, ages zero to three. As attachment theory (which I will discuss in more detail later) suggests, the care and support we receive—or don’t receive—during these years play a vital role in our ability to attain and preserve social capital throughout our lives. The importance of these years is the reason I’ve worked with a group of think tank scholars in Washington, DC to create a resource for 2024 presidential candidates. These publications feature research from a variety of scholars, and offer an “off the shelf” policy platform that addresses ways to rebuild social capital, with a particular focus on our youngest years.

Class and Social Capital

The class-based differences in social capital are key to understanding how early childhood circumstances can shape social capital throughout a lifetime. In one study, Brad Wilcox drew our attention to the widening gap by class between those aged 18–55 who are currently married: 60 percent of the wealthy, 40 percent of the working class, only 20 percent of the poor. This gap didn’t exist in the 1970s. This has ramifications. There are strong correlations between stable family life and upward social mobility, especially in neighborhoods with high rates of stable marriages. This is because relationships are role-modeled, “caught not taught.” If you do not see marriage role-modeled to you, you are less likely to be able to build your own. Meanwhile, those who are wealthy continue to accumulate both social capital and financial capital. These disparities suggest that widening wealth inequality in America today, which rivals that of Russia, could also be creating a wide social capital cleavage between rich and the less well off.

We saw these disparities clearly in the Family Affordability report by Abby McCloskey, who was tasked with considering, in particular, Hispanic families—a diverse population of 60 million, overly represented in poverty and low-income statistics. Hispanics by and large believe in the American dream of upward social mobility more than most. They also make up a sizable proportion of America’s future: one third of children in the United States are Hispanic.

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