For example, it is fashionable nowadays to attribute our current social woes to a lack of social capital. The implication is that the cure is to inject more social capital into the body politic. But looking around for more social capital is like sending a rookie out for a pint of elbow grease. Social capital isn’t a thing—it is just a word we use when talking about the properties of an equilibrium that has evolved along with our game of life.
Ur Binmores Game theory and Institutions