Trust in Society

The Times leader today, wringing its hands about rises in energy prices begins, on a wider point, by stating that capitalism needs consent if it is to flourish.  Quite so – producers and consumers need to trust each other if markets are to function properly.  But to blame a breakdown of market trust purely on greedy capitalists is quite wrong because the malaise is much deeper than that.

For centuries, the peaceful operation of our society has depended upon trust – we have been wholly dependent upon complete strangers behaving in a lawful and neighbourly way to each other.  Conservatives have, traditionally, seen this trusting cooperation as fundamental and vital to defend.

Increasingly, however, politicians have felt it necessary to interfere.  I am not suggesting that society should never progress, only that we should be very careful about discarding things that have worked well for centuries in favour of some popular whim or cause. Nevertheless, insidiously, “the state” has taken over increasingly responsibility which, hitherto, had been our own. The inevitable result of an erosion of personal responsibility is a concomitant decline in accountability and, ultimately, the willingness to take the blame when things go wrong.

The behaviour of our markets merely reflects the behaviour of our society.  If, in society at large, we lose trust in each other and refuse to accept responsibility and slope our shoulders in favour of “the state,” why should we be surprised when markets behave in the same way?  I have some advice for politicians, leader writers and fellow virtue signallers – people in glass houses should not throw stones!