Bowling Alone and Social Capital

Robert Putnam’s article Bowling Alone shows some very interesting trends, but I do not agree with the overall idea that the social capital of the United States is declining because people want to sit in and watch TV. His examples of decreased social capital include decreases in members and attendance of all of the following: voting, unions, religious institutions, Boy Scouts, Elks Club, and Parent-Teacher Association meetings. Of all of these groups, I see voter turnout as the biggest problem for America, but I do not attribute it to any sort of decrease in social capital. I view the decrease in voting as a result of the spread of anti-intellectualism in America, but that is another topic entirely. Besides voter turnout, the only other area that I really see a problem with is the attendance of Parent-Teacher Association meetings. I am surprised and curious about the attendance, and would like to see if it has increased at all since this paper was written.

For the other groups, I believe that it is not a problem that their attendance is down, and I think it is made up for in attendance of newer groups such as aid groups and community service focused ones. Unions, for instance, were originally made to ensure that workers were provided the proper working conditions. Now that workplace conditions are better, the group is almost obsolete and mostly fights for higher wages, which can actually be hurtful to the society. For instance, Washington DC has had really bad problems with the escalators in the city. There are always a multitude of escalators down, and they never seem to be fixed in a timely manner. This is because of unions. The Metro ignored the advice of independent task force, which told them that private sector employees could repair them faster and at a lower cost. Instead, the Metro went ahead as usual and hired union employees because of the strong relations between them and the Metro. If the union members were actually fixing the escalators, they would lose members, power, and money. This kind of problem is being seen everywhere with unions as there is a conflict of interest between steady employment and quality service. In addition, I don’t see unions as creating very much social capital. The membership for the Boy Scouts decreasing probably has more to do with its views on religion and homosexuality than people wanting to watch TV. Religious institutions do create a lot of social capital, but again, I see the decline as having to do with a rise in atheism, and not a rise in TV watching. The truth is, some people like being social and some don’t, and those that like being social will find a medium to do so, even if it is not by becoming a member of a type of group.