Comment by throwaway2037
5 hours ago
Did you get that idea from here? https://www.persuasion.community/p/getting-to-denmark
Francis Fukuyama wrote in a recent blog post: "The United States is no longer a high-trust country. We must regain what’s been lost."
I object to these "wide brush" social commentaries. Normally, they are written by powerful/famous men and frequently negative. I call it "Packaged Doomerism". The US is so huge that is hard to generalise about its culture. There are at least six distinctive cultural regions. Take California as an example: There is a surprisingly large cultural gap between the north (Bay Area) and south (LA/Orange/San Diego). That is just one state. In the same way that the US is huge, so is Europe -- about 50 countries. I cringe when I see the phrase, "In Europe, ..."
Was it ever a high trust country? Our founding stories are various rebellions and a lawless west.
I'm interested in discussion around "high trust societies" and I look for clues because I want to live in one.
Here is just an example of one: Moving from Brooklyn to a small surbuban town:
- very few lock their bikes at the local schools, or "town center". Bikes aren't stolen and kids don't worry about it.
- "town center" has umbrellas out for public use, people use them and put them back.
- People generally don't lock front doors, or don't worry if they aren't.
- If there are problems, people call police, they show up quick [non emergency] and they sort out the problem.
- People happy to pay taxes and they know where it goes
I can go on... these are just examples I've seen.