Trust

 

Oriental Sadness 

She's been talking to somebody.
Who told her lies?
She'll never trust in anybody no more.
Who told her lies?

If those governing tell lies, how can we trust them?

The US one dollar bill carries the motto "In God We Trust", but we are also trusting those who govern, control, society, including those that issue money.  Capitalism assumes that there is perfect information available to both the buyer and the seller.  However this is an average over time. It does not apply to every transaction.  Over time, those transactions that are unsatisfactory will fail and those that are beneficial will succeed.

Like all statistics, this does not apply to each individual transaction.  Knowing that a fair coin flip will be heads one half of the time, provides no information on what the next coin flip will be. Information is unlikely to be available for every transaction.  The buyer and seller have to trust each other for their transaction to be satisfactory. 

It would be great if complete information were available for every transaction and trust was unnecessary.  However, economics shows that users will seek the lowest possible cost/price.  If that cost/price includes using tainted products, child labor, etc. then users will seek this cost/price regardless of their own long-term interests. That is why laws are passed to ensure that harmful outcomes, whether child labor, tainted or counterfeit products, wages below a minimum, etc. can not be considered.  However buyers and sellers still need to trust that the enactment and enforcement of these laws will be in their best interests.  That is why lies matter.  If you can’t trust someone about one thing, then you may not trust them about anything.