How investing in social capital can help revive dying towns in America

It's not just jobs that people need. They need connections.

While home for the holidays, I decided to stroll around the old neighborhood. I wanted to experience the world I biked and ran around as a kid. I wanted to see the same houses. The same streets. Over about twenty years, from the mid-’80s to the early 2000s, I’ve lived in this neighborhood. My mother’s old home is in this neighborhood. So is my grandmot…