This observation began when I was talking to a new neighbor who had just had a child and owned their home here in San Francisco. I asked whether she or her husband had sufficient political skills to deal with the San Francisco public school system.
I was just being curious. My concern was that the child would have to go to private schools if the parents didn't have the political skills to get the child into the best public schools (of which there are several very good ones).
As I have thought about this, political skills are vital for many daily life functions. The healthcare system is bureaucratic and you need political skills to navigate the complexity of multiple doctors multiple medical recommendations and multiple sources of information.
If you deal with city government in any way you need political skills. You need them in order to get favorable tax treatment, you need them for doing any repairs to your home or apartment and certainly for any construction projects. Because of the wildly varying regulatory limits on automobiles you need them. You need them to deal with restrictions and licensing for professional services and business practices.
If you don't have political skills you are likely to be buried by bureaucratic torture.
By political skills I mean the ability to analyze where power and decision-making is in any organization. To understand the most effective form of influence on the power and decision-making centers. To be able to present yourself and your situation in a way that fits into the most normative goals of the organization.
Without political skills most people are doomed to a great deal of misery. With political skills, a condition that I think is fairly rare in the population, most of life is smooth and rewarding.
I learned my political skills in my early 20s when I was actually involved in elective politics. I don’t know where other people learn it. Some clearly get it from a parent or parents.
The neighbor? When the child was four they all moved to the suburbs.