Brainstorming about Trust

So, trust is pretty much at the center of the economic universe. It is the life blood of most human cooperation, doubly so in a capitalist economy. The thing about trust is that we just can’t seem to escape a need for it. When we don’t trust each other, we trust in contracts, laws, and the legal system. We trust in them so that we can limit the amount of faith we need to have in our business partners. However, these intitution are created and administered by the American Aristocracy.[*] At first blush, it appears as though we are placing our trust in an impartial and fair institution[†], but in effect, we are really just shifting our trust to those who control the system; who I will call Aristocrats.[‡]

So now we’ve given these folks our trust. What do they do with it? Should we trust them? What happens if we do? What happens if we don’t?

Dr. Seuss comes to mind here, in his book “Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?” There is a town with only one bee, but the town’s people don’t think the bee is working hard enough. So they hire a member of their community to supervise the bee, and he becomes a Bee Watcher. However, the bee doesn’t work any harder, so the people decide someone needs to watch the Bee Watcher, enter the Bee Watcher Watcher. This cycle repeats itself over and over, until everyone in town is a Bee Watcher Watcher Watcher…

This story illustrates a point I want to make:

We should not want/try avoid the trust issue. It is involved in so much more than economics, it is vital for almost all human interaction and cooperation. The closer we get to trust, the better off everyone is, which is why honesty is such an important principle.

So, in addition to (or perhaps intead of) creating hedges to protect us from the effects of abused trust, we ought to focus more on highlighting the importance of trust. We ought to find innovative and inspired ways to cultivate trust among each other and across cultures.

Is the human race capable of making and living with such a commitment? Can those who trust fully withstand the injustices of those who will undoubtably violate trust? Can we deal with the consequences of a world without contracts?

Capitalism is based on self-interest, which can be, but frequently is not, alligned with the common good. Not exactly the ideal system for trust to flourish in. So, to answer the question of condition or problem, I am going to rule that a lack of trust is definitely a problem. What is more, I am going to say that it is a problem inextricably linked to capitalist self-interest. In such a system, where the chief motive is to make one self better off, trust will always be an issue.[§]

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[*] I’m going to assume that if you have the power/authority to author, interpret, and administer the rules of the game, you are part of the de facto aristocracy.
[†] This is what a middle class white kid from Troutdale might think at first blush. Others may have had much different first impressions of some of our governing institutions.
[‡] Not to be confused with these guys.
[§] Again, not trying to bash capitalism here, just trying to identify conditions vs. problems, and how to best look at them in order to start thinking about solutions.