BookLoverL wrote: ↑Wed Apr 14, 2021 3:32 pm
So - if I'm right, which I might not be - at level 6 then you're thinking about all the different types of capital and starting to use them, instead of just pareto-optimising your money. So at level 6 you're maintaining your social connections well enough to bring in social capital and understand the importance of putting social energy in, you've got financial capital coming in from work or investments or both, you're getting a bunch of skills that you can use to replace having to use either of those types of capital. I've been bad at social connections for a long time but the past few years I've seen more and more of the benefit of "if people find me socially a net positive - fun to hang around with, etc. - and I occasionally use my skills to do something for them as a gift between friends - they are more likely to do things like live with me (cheaper rent), give me free stuff that they were going to throw out or didn't want, provide emotional support, etc., and be a net positive for my life". So that's my improved understanding of social capital, which historically I had approximately none of, but I think I'm starting to get some now and finally know how to get some more once COVID restrictions lift. This also ties into cultural capital - I play ukulele and have a decent singing voice and if you bring a ukulele to a barbecue and play a relatively well known song decently, suddenly people want to invite you to more things. So I become "L, the eccentric ukulele player" to them instead of "L, the shy weirdo".
see, here is why i think these levels are not good theory.
ive lived among peasants. peasants have no money. all they have is social capital. they are great at it. so their "level" would be 8, or something.
at the same time, they can't handle money. no savings, all cash gets squandered, "borrowed" by relatives, etc. when an emergency arises they pass the hat--again a form of social capital or social insurance. but their money management and savings/investing is a lost cause--level zero. the community holds the savings,$5 per person.
at the same time their renaissance skills are multitutude. they can do a lot of things that were popular in the middle ages--chop wood, build houses, raise cattle, heal with herbs, plant crops, make moonshine, burn trash in a barrel. none of those is worth much in the labor market though. their survival depends on vigor and social capital. they live on less than one jafi a year but they pollute like the xix century. and their existence is fairly precarious--would be more precarious outside the usa even. i mean they survive but often in poor health, with missing teeth, and depending on public assistance. they yields and flows are everywhere, they are just not enough to prosper, and rarely include money.
so they're a mix of 10s and 0s and not by any sort of leveling or progression. when it comes to money they are a 0, when they comes to squeezing boons from the detritus of society they are 10s. same as hobos: a hobo is a 10, making a banquet out of a dumpster. a gigolo has 10 in social capital, can play those old widows like a violin.
there are many yields and flows on this earth. they are not necessarily an evolution "from" or "towards" anything. a little study of ecology and carbon and nitrogen cycles shows the way things circulate. eveyrhing gets used and eaten, not just coin
from the exclusive point of the sararyman consumer, sure: seeing something other than coin as means of supply may appear as a liberation. from the point of view of everyone else though, e.g. the large mass of the poor, the view is more neutral. a lot ofmstarving artists gomto openings formthe free food. btw i just donated a bunch of pandemic supplies to people who needed them. i was once almost in that place too, the wolf at the door and winter coming.
executives and sararymen have their social capital too: it's call the golf club. even if they never plan to quit money--it's just a place to make more deals and more money. then above that there's the yacht club, and the boards of nonprofit foundations, and davos, and so on.
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lol sorry for the rant. it's not directed at you but at the "theory."
i sincerely congratulate you on your social advancement. which is very important and valuable. it's just... im just... it's not a level-anything in my view . it's a thing in itself, and a good resource to have and develop, and it comes at a price too but it can have good returns. in fact socialization comes first, and the money comes second. social capital is not a way out of money, more often it's a way into it. see: pierre bordieu:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distinction_(book) or alternatively:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058385/