MIS For Discussion 2/2

The MIS I chose for last week's discussion was from Putnam's "Bowling Alone" article, and is found on page 19, paragraph 3:

"...If he comes into contact with his neighbor, and they with other neighbors, there will be an accumulation of social capital, which may immediately satisfy his social needs and which may bear a social potentiality sufficient to the substantial improvement of living conditions in the whole community."

I thought that this sentence was important to the theme of the article, and to my life personally. Regarding its importance to the article as a whole, I believe that this sentence gives the reader a good idea of what the effect of accumulating social capital is. From this sentence, the reader can understand that by attaining social capital, one's own social needs can be taken care of, and in turn, this social potential can affect the rest of the community through repeated instances of achieving social capital. In my own life, I can see that social capital is important, because it connects us to others in a social network. When we become connected to others, we might become more productive, creating a "public good" (pg 20).