Declining family and community bonds shrink each generation’s human capital.

Evidence

Because the social structural conditions that overcome the problems of supplying these public goods-that is, strong families and strong communities-are much less often present now than in the past, and promise to be even less present in the future, we can expect that, ceteris paribus, we confront a declining quantity of human capital embodied in each successive generation. … This very likely means the substitution of some kind of formal organization for the voluntary and spontaneous social organization that has in the past been the major source of social capital available to the young. — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 231

Categorization

• XREF: Resonates with Putnam’s later Bowling Alone thesis and with Parable of the Sower’s portrayal of shattered community structures as famine. — connects to: A working nuclear family lacks structural social capital. — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 154; Modern kinship no longer structures daily life for most people — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 279; Social change outpacing generational horizons shrinks the reliable present. (+1 more)

Related

• Declining family and community capital will reduce human capital unless formal organizations substitute (similarity 0.88)
• A working nuclear family lacks structural social capital. (similarity 0.85)
• Declining community bonds measurably impair schools, democracy, economy, and health. (similarity 0.84)
• Community social capital substitutes for missing family social capital. (similarity 0.82)
• Communal social capital shapes children’s development beyond family resources. (similarity 0.81)
• Strong parent-child relations are required to transmit parental human capital (similarity 0.80)
• Social change outpacing generational horizons shrinks the reliable present. (similarity 0.80)
• Children need adults’ presence and attention to access parents’ human capital (similarity 0.79)
• Parental human capital only benefits a child’s development when family relationships activate it. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Modern kinship no longer structures daily life for most people #expands (0.80) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 279