Trust: America's Best Chance

Buttigieg looks at the importance of trust, drawing from his own experience as well as broad research, although the tone is popular rather than academic. He also looks at factors that have undermined trust in recent decades and what might be done to rebuild it. It is timely and an easy read. He includes as an appendix a Pew Research study on Trust and Distrust in America. One conclusion that I draw from the study is that there is a class element to trust which the mayor did not address. People who are white, older, and better off are more trusting. Distrust, for many people, may be a rational response to their situation. While it is important to support social institutions where people build mutual trust, we should also strive to make a society where it is more rational to trust. This includes addressing police violence, institutional racism, the social safety net, and economic inequality. How much, for example, would trust increase if the minimum wage were raised to $15/hour?