#Social Capital

[fivepercentgodsandearths]

Poor Righteous Teachers has nothing to do with #Poverty! It's about sacrificing your years, months, and days for speaking the Truth to Power and uplifting the Human Families for Collective Needs! So get involved with Community, Mutual Aid and Decolonization efforts. PEACE

[eaglesnick]

“‘Private education is not fair. Those who provide it know it. Those who pay for it know it. Those who have to sacrifice in order to purchase it know it. And those who receive it know it, or should. And if their education ends without it dawning on them, then that education has been wasted.”  - Alan Bennett.

One year ago almost to the day, Sir Kier Starmer, our new prime minister, promised to end the “snobbery” that surrounds academic vs vocational education. Speaking in Gillingham Kent, he said the ‘class ceiling' needed to be broken and he vowed to fight the existing reality that social background - and by default, economic background  - determines a child’s future opportunities.

This pledge was part of his fifth mission statement where he promised to “break down the barriers of opportunity at every stage for every child.”  More importantly he emphasised:

“This mission is my core purpose and my personal cause: to fight, at every stage, for every child, the pernicious idea that background equals destiny, that your circumstances, who you are, where you come from, who you know, might shape your life more than your talent, effort and enterprise.

“No, breaking that link, that’s what Labour is for. I have always felt that. It runs deep for me.” (Keir Starmer:05/07/23)

Starmer is absolutely right when he says a child’s socio-economic background determines the opportunities open to them. Money buys privilege. One reason private schools are so popular among better off parents, especially the very rich, is that class sizes are so much smaller than in the state sector, and as is well known, “smaller classes lead to higher quality education”. From early years of prep schooling right through to the elite universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, money buys academic success. It is no accident that 60% of top university student intake is private school educated, while just 25% is from state schools: the rest being overseas students.

But it is not only the quality of education than counts when it comes to future opportunities – social networking also plays a major role. Sending your child to a private school not only increases their chances of academic success, it also builds up “social capital".

This interesting headline says it all:

Getting the job: it's not just who you know, its how you know them" (nature: 23/1022)

If you know them from public school, especially boarding school, then you are recognised as "one of us" and you reap the advantages.

The dominance of the privately educated throughout Britain’s "upper echelons of power" was recognised by the conservative Prime Minister John Major, who was shocked at the difference a private education made to opportunities for success.

Starmer’s ambition to end the disadvantage of being a state educated pupil by raising educational standards in state schools is admirable but it is not enough. In a report into who gets the top jobs published in 2013 the researchers came to this depressing conclusion.

.”Our work discounts the notion that higher education levels the playing field between students of differing socio-economic backgrounds. Beyond academic achievement, our analysis suggests there are other reasons why wealthier and more advantaged students, and particularly those who attend a private school, are significantly more likely to secure a top job."  ( Macmillian, Tyler and Vignoles:“Who gets the Top Jobs? The role of family background and networks in recent graduates’ access to high status professions.” ; IOE December 2013)

Nothing has changed since 2013. In 2019 Statistica carried this headline:

“The UK's top jobs are dominated by the privately educated…our report shows, the most influential people across sport, politics, the media, film and TV, are five times as likely to have attended a fee-paying school.”  (Statistica: 25/06/19)

And in 2023 we had this report:

“Private school alumni…gain a disproportionate share, relative to their small numbers, of highly influential jobs in British public life and in business. (UCL: Private schools and British Society: 29/11/23)

Given Starmer’s “mission” to break the ‘class ceiling” is at the ‘core’ of his being, then he has gotten off to a very poor start in trying to remedy this gross social inequality. Originally he promised to strip private schools of their charity status.

“Keir Starmer vows to scrap charitable status for private schools” (LBC: 28/11/22)

Less than a year later, like so many of Starmer’s pledges, this plan was abandoned.

According to The Conversation (27/06/22) charitable status for private schools is worth “£3 billion a year”. It is certainly true that Rugby School is “raking in millions a year thanks to London rental property”. (Coventry Live: 06/04/2025).  Eton College, Britain’s most famous private school and the provider of 20 British prime ministers, has been described as having:

“…huge investments in securities and property - £568mn at August 2022 – chipping in handy amounts each year, tax-free thanks to its charitable status”. (Financial Times: 29/09/23)

Under Starmer the privilege provided by private education is to continue. Money buys smaller class sizes, better academic attainment and a build up of social capital through networking with others from wealthy families. Hiding behind the bogus claim of charitable status these schools for the privileged save millions of pounds in tax relief while the state sector is starved of sufficient funding. Rather than doing yet another U-turn, Starmer should have been planning to  close  private schools altogether.

If he is willing to surrender so easily to privilege and wealth on his “core” beliefs then he has no right to be Prime Minister, and his claims that his administration is all about "change" is just hollow rhetoric.

[syphoncontinuity]

What people really want in a webcomic are Bourdieu references. Follow for hawt hawt jokes about hyperreality, alienation, and schema too.

[ SH After Dark Archive ]

[cosmicanger]

“Whenever insta celeb or any social-media celeb asks for help or for resources, people jump over each other to help them. But when it’s a regular n*gga asking for help publicly or privately, it’s crickets. Been tryna explain to people for years that almost all ppl of all races only support celebs and microcelebs, that’s a function of social capitalism. And almost all ppl of all races rarely support Black folks who are not platformed in some way. Smdh and to become a microceleb or celeb as a Black person, you gotta extremely antiBlack af =\, like constantly enabling anti-Blackness from nonblack people and other Black folks who like nonBlack ppl too much while basically throwing other Black ppl under the bus for personal gain or remaining silent while their connections are extremely anti-Black to other Black folk. Not them though, they are fine, their nonBlack friends “would never treat me like that!” whites & nonBlack ppl of color become celebs from usually being thin and copying Black people these days. Some whites just become celebs or microcelebs simply because they are white. We are this deep into a pandemic through global anti-Blackness and 9 out of 10 ppl of all races still dont have networks of consistent material support for Black folks who do not have a lot of social capital/clout; it is maddening and saddening.”

[babyspacebatclone]

Ok, I need people to understand that on the most basic, cynical level, this is true.

It’s called Human Capital.

Human capital in a broad sense is a collection of activities: all the knowledge, skills, abilities, experience, intelligence, training and competences possessed individually and collectively by individuals in a population. These resources are the total capacity of the people that represents a form of wealth that can be directed to accomplish the goals of the nation or state or a portion thereof. The human capital is further distributed into three kinds;[17]

* Knowledge capital

* Social capital

* Emotional capital.[18]

Many theories explicitly connect investment in human capital development to education, and the role of human capital in economic development, productivity growth, and innovation has frequently been cited as a justification for government subsidies for education and job skills training.(emphasis added)

Like, on a most basic level, a social system - including an economic one - and only move forwards on the sum of its parts’ health.

And despite what people poisoned by the myth of what they think capitalism is/should be, that goes all the way down: you can’t move forwards if the people on the bottom holding up the entire pyramid aren’t supported.

And the thing is? Human capital is something that (when not abused from the outside) almost certainly guarantees return on investment:

Human capital is distinctly different from the tangible monetary capital due to the extraordinary characteristic of human capital to grow cumulatively over a long period of time.

It is not a zero sum game.

You make things better on the lower tiers, they become better, and they can therefore contribute to the system better.

And I need to stress: I do not adopt the cynical perspective.

I fully believe we should help people out because it’s just the right thing to do, that people deserve support as a basic human right.

But it hurts so much to have been taught this basic, rational principle, and see people completely destroy everything for short term gains when the facts are that investment in children and all levels of society grow, and we all benefit.

[guiltyidealist]

new favorite YouTube comment just dropped

[ilona-mushroom]

Not socialist in a “I won’t have to work” type of way but socialist in a “I’ll still be working but I won’t be worried I won’t make the rent” type of way. In a “billions won’t be hoarded by one person” type of way. In a “janitors, fast-food workers, child care workers, preschool teachers, hotel clerks, personal care and home health aides, and grocery store cashiers, will live comfortably” type of way. In a “the sick and elderly will be cared for” type of way. In a “no child should work” type of way.

[lilithism1848]

[fivepercentgodsandearths]

The Collective can Control the Elite Few or the One in Socio economic political power.

[a-gay-poptart]

I have found the best ally

Straight and cis people will say that they are allies, but you will NEVER measure up to my dentist.

Me: "Hey, is it ok if I can change my name on my info from [DEADNAME] to Aspen?"

Random woman that I wasn't even talking to in the chair next to me: "Honey, if that's the name you had at birth, [DEADNAME] is your only name."

My dentist, very slowly turning her rolley chair towards the woman: "Shush."

Random woman: "Excuse me?"

Destist: *closes privacy curtain while staring bullets at the lady*

Me: *pissing myself laughing*

My dentist while changing my name in my info (reminder that English is not her first language, she immigrated from Russia): "There, Sai, you have pretty boy teeth. Smile and make all girls swoon."

Me not having the heart to tell her I'm not transmasc but I'm Agender, and still pissing myself laughing: "Thank you [DENTIST NAME]."

Edit: Ok, this has gotten alot of attention, but right now my other posts is what really needs attention. I have a few fundraisers for people trying to evacuate Palestine and Gaza, but also a diabetic who needs her insulin shot. Please please please, go to my page and at the very least repost those posts, have the day you deserve and free Palestine🇵🇸

[normal-thoughts-official]

Please stop seeing politics as an identity and start seeing it as a collective means for change

[theconcealedweapon]

"Capitalism allows you to follow your dreams. Socialism forces you to give up your dreams."

Yeah. Keep telling yourself that.

[procurement-insights]

As a procurement professional, business is personal!

Why is business personal?

Whenever someone decides to follow (or connect) with me on LinkedIn, I send out the following message: Hello, Stephen. I am glad you decided to follow me on LinkedIn. My community – 60,000 strong, includes some of the industry’s most insightful and influential thought leaders. As I engage with them regularly, I want you to feel they are also part of your community. People like Dr. David…

[muffinlevelchicanery]

[mysharona1987]