The Surprising Geography of Social Capital in America
COMMENTARY The Surprising Geography of Social Capital in America Michael Hendrix Medium June 29, 2018 In a moment scarred by the untimely deaths of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade, America has confronted the terrible reality that suicide is on the rise in nearly every state in the country. In 2016, suicides outnumbered homicides by two-to-one. More than half of those that took their own lives had no known mental health conditions. Rather, interwoven with substance abuse, was one of the most pernicious afflictions facing modern America: social isolation. American life in the past few decades has undergone a dramatic transformation. Reports are emerging of a fraying social fabric disentangling the ties of faith, family, and community. Loosening the ties that bind us as a country to one another has profound effects not only on society but on each of us individually, sometimes to terrible effect. Rising affluence has afforded us independence, but we have yet to count the