One of the pervasive problems in America these days (yup, I’m doing one of *those* posts) is that we don’t trust each other.
Conservatives don’t trust that poor people are actually trying very hard. Liberals don’t trust that financiers are actually doing anything other than skimming off the top. Labor doesn’t trust that wage concessions are necessary to stay competitive – they think Management is just trying to up its take. Republicans don’t trust Democrats and vice versa. Young people don’t trust that working hard and playing by the rules is anything more than a formula for chumps. Old people don’t trust the young to be grateful for the opportunities they’re given. Insureds don’t trust insurance companies to act in good faith; insurance companies don’t trust doctors and patients to make reasonable choices. Public employees don’t trust that their pensions will be available when promised. The public doesn’t trust that public employees worked sufficiently hard for the pensions they were promised as compensation. Etc.
How do we fix this? I don’t know. Consistently reward good behavior and penalize bad behavior and do so publicly. Easier said than done, I suppose.
I’m going to make a shameless plug for one of my more recent books: “Distrust, American Style: Diversity and the Crisis of Public Confidence” in which I analyze this phenomenon and do offer several suggestions–including (surprise surprise) improving civic literacy.
This is a good post Doug, and thanks for asking.
I think that folks need to realize that a lot of the technocratic things that people want to use government to do just don’t work. So stop trying.
I can relate to someone that I don’t agree with if I have confidence that that person is persuadable. But if that person is not really persuadable, what is the recourse?
Deep seated anger is the probable result.