6 ms·
When was the USA a high trust society?
by throwaway198846 4mo ago
When was the USA a high trust society?
- ComplexSystems 4mo agoYou know, back when it was a noble democracy where all men were free, or something.
- rayiner 4mo agoBeing a high trust society isn’t the same thing as being a fully egalitarian society. Getting to “high trust for the majority” is the 0 to 1 of civilizational development. Most societies never get there—they’re low trust for everyone.
- platevoltage 4mo agoBack during the Red Scare obviously \s
- dmd 4mo agoIn the General Social Survey, the share of adults saying “most people can be trusted” fell from 46% in 1972 to 34% in 2018, and Pew found the same 34% in a 2023 to 2024 poll. - https://www.pewresearch.org/2025/05/08/americans-trust-in-one-another/ https://www.pewresearch.org/2025/05/08/americans-trust-in-on...
- losteric 4mo agoRight after WW2, trust was way higher. There was a belief in common good and progress and all that.
- shimman 4mo agoSomething tells me this trust evaporated once the Vietnam War was in full swing and the USA started murdering labor activists in South America.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- heggerd 4mo ago[flagged]
- fhn 4mo agoyou're just racist
- bloqs 4mo agoIt later resolves, but by definition of the human condition, it does initially I'm afraid. It's less about colour and more about values and creed
- anonymars 4mo agoIt might not be quite that simple. See for example: https://www.jstor.org/stable/48588978 https://www.jstor.org/stable/48588978
- ok_dad 4mo agoTell that to Hawaii. Your whole argument is destroyed by Hawaii’s culture. America (the continent) is broken socially because American whites cannot get along with others and they’ve gone mask off, destroying the cohesion we once had when they were trying to seem less hateful.
- runsWphotons 4mo agoHawaii is rife with ethnic tensions, not some exception.
- ok_dad 4mo agoNah everyone gets along except the haoles
- array_key_first 4mo agoIt is most definitely disputable that it destroy social cohesion. The US was cohesive after WWII, by that point we already had a LOT of non-white people. Also black Americans have been here since the start.
- burnt-resistor 4mo agoUp until the Powell memo.
- paulpauper 4mo agoObviously subjective, but I would argue it was higher before stores began putting the items behind glass/locks.
- hattmall 4mo agoSort of, but there's a difference, the rise in anti-shoplifting stuff is in contrast to a decline in things like burglar bars. Stealing from residential property is seen as mostly the domain of drug addicts. Stealing from a multi-national corporation doesn't have the same stigma.
- nradov 4mo agoIt's not a matter of stigma, it's a matter of lax enforcement. The majority of shoplifting is done by organized criminal gangs. They'll do it if they can escape without serious punishment, regardless of any stigma. https://www.inc.com/bruce-crumley/shoplifting-gangs-have-plagued-retailers-for-years-law-enforcement-just-struck-back/91198869 https://www.inc.com/bruce-crumley/shoplifting-gangs-have-pla...
- wallst07 4mo agoHigh property rights, low crime rates are [among others] is textbook definition of high trust societies. It doesn't matter whom it's from.
- rayiner 4mo agoParts of America still are high trust: https://qctimes.com/entertainment/dining/article_5371e735-5344-5e1a-b692-55a580d7dd1e.html https://qctimes.com/entertainment/dining/article_5371e735-53... When Lee Kuan Yew visited London for the first time after World War II, he was impressed by the fact that it had unattended newspaper stands where people were trusted to take a newspaper and leave money: https://youtu.be/b_6H26fpZp8 https://youtu.be/b_6H26fpZp8. As someone from a low trust society, I fully concur with his assessment that this was the mark of a truly “civilized society.”
- hattmall 4mo agoThese sort of unmanned roadside stands are all over the southern US.
- rayiner 4mo agoIn major cities? LKY was talking about an unmanned newspaper stand and cash box in Trafalgar Square. Would that work in Times Square today?
- drstewart 4mo agoWould it work in Trafalgar Square today?
- graemep 4mo agoProbably. There certainly used to be places in London with similar systems not long ago. That said, the UK is becoming lower trust.
- nerdsniper 4mo agoWe do have "little libraries" where anyone can take or leave books in many people's yards. But I haven't seen the honor system produce stands in urban areas for the past 10+ years.
- 4mo ago
- uejfiweun 4mo agoI don't think we were ever a "high trust" society in the way that like Denmark is or something. But I'd find it hard to argue with the assertion that rather, the US has become increasingly more of a low trust society recently, more than we already were.
- Longlius 4mo agoGiven your username, you're not going to like the answer to that question.
- throwaway198846 4mo agoWhat do you think my username mean? Some kind of a dog whistle? In reality it is me misremembering 196884 from monstrous moonshine.