Whatâs
Wrong Today:
Americans
are becoming a mistrustful bunch. Nearly 2/3 of us say you can’t be too careful
in dealing with people, according to the Chicago-based General
Social Survey, (GSS), a massive survey of Americans conducted regularly
since 1972, with funding from the National Science Foundation. The GSS has been
asking whether most people can be trusted, or whether âyou canât be too
carefulâ in daily life. Four decades ago, Americans were evenly split on the
question. But, here are the current findings:
- 78% have little faith in people
they meet while traveling, saying they trust them “just
somewhat,” “not too much” or “not at all”, while 19%
don’t worry, they have “quite a bit” or “a great deal”
of trust in people away from home - 75% mistrust people driving
cars while they’re driving, biking or walking - 67% have little confidence in
people who swipe their credit card when they buy something - 59% don’t have much faith in
people with whom they have shared photos, videos or information on social
media - 55% don’t trust the people they
hire to come into their homes to do work - 50% have little trust in the
people who prepare their food when they eat out
Yet, 100% of them continue to eat
out? Asked
by the GSS how much of the time they trust the government in Washington to do
what is right, people say:
- 81%: only some of the time
- 15%: most of the time
- 2%: just about always
The GSS poll
was conducted Oct. 3-7, 2013. It involved online interviews with 1,227 adults.
The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage
points for all respondents.
Pew
Research Center show similar results, with just 19% trusting the government
most of the time. Pew has a slick, interactive longitudinal
survey that has tracked the publicâs trust in government since 1958. Check
it out at the link above.
A 107-country
poll by Transparency
International, a corruption monitor, this past summer found Americans more
likely than Italians to say that they feel that their police, business and media
are all âcorrupt or extremely corruptâ. But, according to the Economist,
that is an ill-informed conclusion:
low-trust societies, suspicion blights lives and hobbles economies. In China,
even successful urbanites distrust business and government, worrying constantly
about the food they buy and the air they breathe. Yet those same successful
Chinese have little confidence in the poor
In
genuinely low-trust countries, tax evasion comes naturally: when those at the
top cheat, only dupes follow the rules. But, according to the Economist, America
shows few signs of surging tax evasion:
âtax gapâ estimates found no significant decline in the proportion of taxes
paid voluntarily and on time
Yet Americans
are increasingly distrustful and angry. But even though the Transparency
International survey shows we distrust authority at Italian levels, they do not
completely describe reality. Most surveys show that âhalf of all Americansâ think
this or that, but behind the headlines, the data show partisan or demographic
divides.
Behind the
GSS numbers about overall trust between Americans, there are some large gaps: The
bulk of the recent decline involves whites becoming less trusting. And we know
that over the same period, (since the early 1970âs), society has become more
impersonal and more economically unequal.
Robert Putnam of
Harvard University, a pioneer in the study of âsocial capitalâ, argues
that Americansâ trust in one another has been declining steadily since the end of the WWII, when civic activity and a
sense of community among neighbors were at a peak.
Putnam makes a
distinction between two kinds of social capital: bonding capital and bridging
capital. Bonding occurs when you are
socializing with people who are like you. But in order to create
peaceful societies in a diverse multi-ethnic country, you also need to have bridging
capital: Bridging is what you do when
you make friends with people who are not like you. Putnam argues that
those two kinds of social capital, bonding and bridging, strengthen each other.
Consequently, with the decline of the bonding capital, inevitably comes the decline
of bridging capital, and thus, lower societal trust.
And
thus, the growth in anti-government cynicism that is Americaâs real product of
distrust. Also, our capitalism-based society relies on risk, individuals,
competition, and pitting people (and groups) against one another for a limited
number of dollars and other resources. That also contributes to reduced trust
in a society. We see one another as competitors, rather than allies for
resources.With low GDP growth, America is becoming a zero-sum game economy.
Sharply-delineated
voter blocs are alarmingly willing to believe that rival groups are up to no
good or are taking more than their fair share. That tallies with one of the
biggest changes over the past 15 years: a
collapse in support among conservatives for government safety nets.
Here is a
good example that proves the point:
our assistance in these difficult times, and we cannot let them down…I have
shared these concerns with the leaders of the House and the Senate, and they
understand the need for early action…When our legislators return to the
Capitol, I ask them to make the extension of unemployment benefits a first
order of business. And the benefits they approve should be retroactive, so that
people who lose their benefits this month will be paid in full
Who said
that? George
W. Bush, in his weekly radio address on December 15, 2002. Can you imagine a conservative delivering that message in 2013?
To succeed, a pluralist democracy must find
compromises between a wide range of views. In DC today, compromise is often
portrayed as giving up your principles and therefore a form of corruption,
instead of a necessity that allows society to function.
It comes down to respecting anotherâs
point of view even if you donât trust them.
