Social and Creative CapitalOur contentment and success relies heavily on the relationships and values we all hold. Social capital and creative capital are two distinct, diverse ideas that determine which of these relationships and values matter to us. While both ideas have many useful aspects, there are a few problematic aspects as well. Social capital is the networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively. This promotes happiness, quality of life, and emotional health as well as providing numerous job opportunities. However with this, social capital can lead to exclusion, gangs, and narrow-mindedness. Creative capital takes on a different idea. According to Florida, the creative class is an important driving force for economic growth of post-industrial cities. This not only brings freedom, diversity, and acceptance, but it also provides a very thick labor market. Yet with creative capital often comes gentrification. It also gives those who aren’t software developers a disadvantage. Thereadings on creative capital and social capital encompass these valuable and sometimes problematic aspects that help further these ideas. According to Putnam’s “Bowling Alone”, Social capital is the core idea that social networks have much value. It’s the density, both intensity and extensity, of social ties. These social contacts and ties affect the productivity of individuals and groups. Assumingly, this has a great impact on quality of life, happiness, and emotional health. If an individual has strong social networks, it is likely they are in a happy and healthy state. Aside from mentality, social capital also ties in with job opportunities. People with a lot of Social Capital often get jobs by knowing someoneat the company, or hearing about it from a friend. They build their client base by word of mouth more than other marketing strategies. However even with that, there are still problematic aspects of social capital. Having weak social ties often leads to exclusion and extreme individualism, leaving individuals with nothing or no one to rely on. Another issue social capital brings is narrow-mindedness. Extreme individualism leads people to become narrow-minded. These people only have concern only for themselves, lacking tolerance and sympathy for others. This idea of not accepting others opinions, beliefs, or behaviors that are unusual or different from yours is a main concern for social capital. The idea of creative capital states that people choose to live in certain places or areas that are characterized by diversity, tolerance, anonymity, youth, hipness, authenticity, recreation and jobs. Being able to elect where to live based on how it is characterized brings extreme freedom, diversity, and acceptance among people. Living in an open society causes much more diversity in race, gender, and sex, which has been accepted more over time. Creative capital also brings a very thick labor market. Over time, more and more employment opportunities have broadened and become accepted. As a result of creative capital, jobs are now chasing people whereas people used to chase jobs. Although there aren’t many, there are still a couple problems with the creative class. Gentrification is a reoccurring issue and a main concern among many. Because people choose to live in a particular area or in a certain way, these areas are being reconstructed and reassembled. These neighborhoods are fixed up in such a way that new, wealthy people come in, forcing the previous residents out leaving them with nothing. Rising creativity relies heavilyon software developers giving those who in healthcare, business and finance, the legal sector, and education an advantage. However those who aren’t software developers such as janitors or maids are not well informed and therefore not creative. This assumption is affecting thousands of workers and is causing problems for creative capital. After both social capital and creative capital readings, I feel that social capital has more useful and less problematic aspects. The idea that everyone relationships are formed by social ties makes for a strong community that provides jobs, freedom, equality, etc. There are a few problematic areas where individuals can be forgotten or lost however I believe this is something that can be solved. Both creative capital and social capital are unique ideas that help me understand what kinds of relationships and values are key in