Creating Our Own Safety Net

February 9, 2009 by David Eggleton

Safety net brings to mind what circuses do -- or don't -- suspend beneath highly skilled performers we must look upwards to watch. If any fail to get a grip or fail to return to balance at a moment of necessity, the net is there to prevent injurious impacts at the floor. This kind of net, provided by the owners to protect their investment, serves when the active ones are few and the more numerous passive ones are (functionally) identical. Concern for the whole crowd is minimal. Little more than entertainment is provided for the packed-in consumers. This is a good metaphor for producers and consumers in THE ECONOMY.

As the short form of network, net also implies many connections, if not relationships, among active beings. This kind of net, if extensive and well-established with short-range connections, can provide another kind of safety when something ceases or goes wrong suddenly. A few broken connections among very many are less impactful and, therefore, less disastrous, than a few disconnections among not very many.

What makes a disaster is a great difference between before and after. We cannot know when and where some connections will break. Therefore, it makes sense to work often at establishing and extending our network, our safety net. The quality of this net is a measure of local community wealth.

There's safety in numbers... of connections. That's what Woburnite.com, Social Capital, Inc. and associated initiatives are all about. We can minimize conceivable disasters by investing available attention, time and energy in a net that works for us.