Whom do you trust?

So who do you trust?  Do you trust the government? Do you trust your child alone with a Catholic priest?  Trust your doctor?  Your lawyer? The legal system?  Your friends, family, business associates?

Do you trust the babysitter, alone...at night..with your kids and all your possessions?

I think trust is dying in the United States.  Back in 1995, Francis Fukayama wrote a book exploring the level of trust in different societies.  He found that there were differences in how much trust people had in institutions and people that varied by culture.  There was also a correlation between the level of trust and each culture / nations level of wealth and prosperity.

The United States, Japan and Europe have traditionally had high levels of trust.  Africa and South America's trust levels are low. Compare teh economic and societal performance of America and Nigeria.  Where do you want to live?

Do you think trust levels are rising or falling in the United States?  I think the evidence is everywhere that trust levels are falling, and this is not a good sign for the future of our nation, our society or our economy.  What are the signs?  According to Gary North, "it starts with skepticism, escalates to cynicism and culminates in the politics of class politics."

His definitions describe how things work for me.  I started as a skeptic and have definitely graduated to cynicism, or as I like to call it, taking a realistic view of the world.

In an article worth reading for Marketwatch, John C Dvorak claims public trust is eroding by citing the failure of public watchdog groups like Standard & Poor's, the collapse of companies like Enron and Worldcom, the constant fleecing of the public from Mortgage companies, credit card companies and banks.  Dvorok writes:

"Every single institution of public trust has decided to go all in and see what they can steal from a passive uncomplaining public made paranoid by government surveillance and the now seemingly permanent orange-alert status of the country over terrorism."

"The whole scene is as bleak as it could be, but because of a declining public interest and perhaps a general stupefaction of the public, nothing is done about it. It's a population of sheep being fleeced over and over with hardly a complaint."

So let me ask you, "is the level of trust you have in your church, government or school higher now than it was in the past, or do you find yourself installing the nanny cam and asking for more supervision like Britain has or New York is in the process of doing?

I was always amazed when I think about America 150 years ago. Families would pack everything they own into a wagon and head off into the wilderness to forge a new life.  There were no cell phones, no internet and whatever medical care you could find was spotty at best, but they did it.  They would meet people along the way and, I think, they would generally trust them.  There was no need for a lawyer and constant supervision from the government. 

The level of trust was high.  This allowed us to build the greatest economy in the world.  Today people not only distrust their institutions, they distrust themselves and the people around them.  Most people can't go to the grocery store without taking a cell phone or make a decision without consulting an expert. We used to be a nation of men.  We are now becoming a nation of sheep.  People eat sheep.