Why Everybody Loses When Nobody Trusts Anybody

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If no one trust anyone Then Technology and community will crawl to a standstill.
the Greed of our monitory system slows progress enough as it is.
Look at the gulf of Mexico disaster, We had technology to prevent it, However Bush said it was to expensive to expect the oil companies to use it.
And now look! our whole environment is at stake and jobs are threatened at a time when we need more jobs so we can over produce and fill our landfills with perfectly good product so we can raise prices
and do it all over again and again.
What is wrong with this picture?.
"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
"and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm
Don D. Brock

Don D. Brock of AZ 3:56PM May 29, 2010

The contemptuous dishonesty of the banks; the corporate stranglehold on everything that touches our lives; the constant wars; torture as a regular topic of discourse; a destructive health care system in the hands of a corrupt, predatory industry; abysmal and worsening education standards and opportunities; a tax system that is both incomprehensible and riddled with special favors; all of this supported and kept in place by platoons of corrupt, bribe-taking political hacks and lobbyists. Of course people are distrustful!
Quite apart from economic suffering, the daily assault of what life is becoming in America today renders people helpless -- and that is the greatest incubator for rage.

Will of MO 12:59PM March 03, 2010

"Lack of trust" is not the reason the tea-party movement has sprung up. The tea-party "movement" is a corporate-backed use of personally-frustrated people to try to protest having a liberal president. It's not much different than the militias in the woods which sprang up in Clinton's first term.
But if you'd like to ponder on one serious root of declining trust in America, here it is. If you work anywhere except for yourself, you've been told in an employee handbook that you must agree to be fired at any time for any reason or no reason. THINK about that. ANY reason, or NO reason. Shoved down your throat and that of every other citizen. Why would anybody trust a "system" rigged like that against honest folks? (Answer: We don't.)
So, are we nuts to let this be the "law of our land", or just spineless in the face of corporations?

Muser of NM 12:13AM March 03, 2010

I've always thought that that are just too many people trying to govern too many with too many self-interests. Of course people cheat, steal, lie, and that goes from the guy on the street to the highest order. Not everyone does this or feels compelled to do the same but it is woven into the fabric of our intelligence. Yet, we continue our patterns of elections, judgements, ways to earn money or take it from others. An overcomplicated system for an overcomplicated society. Lets face it...................The very freedom we sought out after the revolutions in europe, we in turn, screwed ourselves with our own spoils...................greed, corruption, manipulation of the masses..................this of course is the equation of soulessness.........

Cblake34 of AZ 8:10PM March 02, 2010

there is a lawlessness environment all around us. From the person who doesn't declare his real assets, to the motorist who runs the red light with frequency, to the banker who cheats people out of money, to the politician who engages in unethical behavior - everyone is operating on some form of illegal, unethical playing level. No longer are values held as a national norm. There are backstage deals going on all the time - it's the American way, some say. However, it has putrefied our national fabric and destroyed all sense of decency.

wondering of FL 6:28AM March 02, 2010

Who can you trust? Your family and loved ones, yourself, God.
Who can't you trust? The politicans right and left, goverment in general, banks,hackers,used car salesmen(no offense).There is alot more we are affraid to trust than the ones we know in our hearts we can trust. more than likely most people are as affraid to trust you or I as we are to trust them,which is a shame because the way things are going we will need to trust each other now more than ever.

Hunter of WI 9:56PM March 01, 2010

I have long thought that our complex criminal code would be much simplified if we started with the premise that the only crime is violation of trust. Someone who steals from me has violated my trust in others' honesty and fairness and concern for fellow human beings. Someone who pushes me out of the way has, too. And so, too, with a very long list of offenses that, in whatever ways, violate trust.
By attaching specific penalties to specific forms of violating trust, we invite the kinds of evasion engaged in by those whose actions don't readily fit the categories of penalty that have been established. Think politicians whose promises before election go completely ignored after election--G.W.Bush's to be a uniter only to become willingly a divider, Obama's to have a lobbyist-free administration only to end up willingly with quite the opposite. Have they not violated the trust of MANY with impunity under the present criminal code? Have they not, unlike, say, those who are imprisoned for use of marijuana, done more harm to more people by violating trust without even the potential for punishment?
Trust is violated every day in every way. I say it is the only crime. Sometimes it's punished, too many times it's not. It could be time to reconsider our approach(es) to punishment, the very nature of "crime," and just maybe the nature of our supposed morality.

Ron W. Smith of UT 5:43PM March 01, 2010

Rick Newman's interview with Anna Bernsasek was fascinating. It's my view that there is a key principle about "trust" that she does not understand (perhaps because she is from Australia).
Thanks to the FDIC, she says, people gained trust in America's financial system; all true, but the FDIC was created 75 years ago when politics and government were very different. She then moves into current political matters including trust in America's institutions. And trust in these areas is far more problematic. From the left, we have attacks on many traditional institutions including the church, service clubs, even the Boy Scouts. From the right, we have attacks on greens, the UN, and on government. And almost universally, there are attacks on Congress with an job approval rating now down to 14%.
Ms. Bernsasek has hit on a topic, often ignored, that highlights our plight--the US Tax Code. It has been a mess for decades, people have tried to reform it, but just last year even more pages of stuff was added to what has become an incomprehensible mess that is intended to manipulate, punish, incentivise, obfuscate Americans, for some convoluted reason or another, unevenly and unfairly. In spite of this cancer, Congress cannot come together to make it honest, fair, and understandable. She says it correctly, "we have...the opposite of an integrity-enhancing system." She's also right about healthcare--"why can't we do something simpler." Warren Buffett, who today suggested that the president scrap the Democratic health care proposal, agrees.
The problem is government--there is too much of it, too much sleight-of-hand, too much going on behind closed doors, and zero accountability for screw ups and misdeeds (how, otherwise, could Charlie Rangel still be in Congress?). Ms. Bernsasek is right. We have to make things simpler, but to do that we must insist on holding our elected representatives responsible and accountable. We'd better get going; they're quickly taxing and spending us to death.

Sherlock Holmes of NH 3:42PM March 01, 2010

Hurray for you. It is all true but it probably will not change
until the economy gets a whole lot worse. The fat cats have more
than enough to keep afloat. Humam beings by nature are very greedy,
and it is difficult to erase that. Shame is very effective but
difficult to administer unless everyone is behind it. The next move on the work sheet is out right violence, and that has happen before but it is rather ugly. Sometimes is seems like we are at a standoff. The general public is losing at the moment and will continue to do so as long as the monied sector keeps on making
excuses for bad behavior and if that happens long enough we are all headed for serious trouble.

Robert Rose of MN 2:44PM March 01, 2010