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Reader question: Please explain "social fabric" in this passage: The message for the United States is clear. For a society that just chases money, we are chasing the wrong things. Our social fabric is deteriorating, social trust is deteriorating, faith in government is deteriorating. My comments: This is a commentary on America, but it sounds awfully like one on China, especially the part about money chasing. Everyone chases money to a degree, but it sometimes, make that often, feels like the chase for money here is much more earnest and relentless than anywhere, America included. Anyways, social fabric refers to the basic structures of society, especially people-to-people relationships. Fabric, you see, is basically a piece of cloth, made from knitting pieces of single threads together. You can, therefore, understand social fabric this way by taking people of different race, religion, culture as well as social institutions including the system of law, politics as pieces of threads. If the pieces are all closely and smoothly knitted together, you have what is ideally known here as a harmonious society, i.e. a society where people seamlessly and happily relate to one another. The key in fabric is in the knitting whereas the key in society is in networking, or relationships, how people interact with each other. When we say “our social fabric is deteriorating”, it's like saying the shirt we wear begins to go threadbare, you know, revealing loose ends here and there. If we don't repair the shirt by patching up the damaged parts, soon holes will emerge. | 
