What you're describing here is called "Social Capital"[0] and can be summed up very neatly with the question posed in that section of that entry [1] "do you tru

What you're describing here is called "Social Capital"[0] and can be summed up very neatly with the question posed in that section of that entry [1] "do you trust the others?" which basically gets to the bottom of that issue which is trust. The "social trust deficit" phenomenon that plagues certain societies is one of those key implicit factors in the lagging economic performance in those societies as it drags and dampens economic activities due to the fact that doing business is all about trust and this prevailing social distrust across classes and communities is one giant road block to that end. Also, the example you cited about electric generators in Angola is yet another instance of "Conway's Law"[2] in play. Apparently, these people don't talk to each other and even if they do, it doesn't bridge the trust gap to unlock the potential that they might have to improve their standards of living and quality of life. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_capital#Social_capital_scales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_capital#Social_capital_... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_capital#Social_capital_scales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_capital#Social_capital_... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_law