More on trust

I said before that the lack of trust is add overhead to everything. I think this needs a bit more explanation.

If you try to buy something at the store and there is absolutely no level of trust then the checkout person has to check every bill you hand them to see if it is a fake. That adds to the time you spend in line and the extra time the checker spends will eventually be added to the cost of the items you buy. You will need to check every bit of change you receive. The items you buy may be used, mislabeled, or not weigh the amount printed on the package. All of this adds to the amount of time you spend at the store. Overhead.

If you are in a relationship and you have to constantly monitor your spouse to ensure they aren't cheating on you this time spent is overhead. If your boss has to pay somebody to make sure you are putting in a full day and you in turn have to argue with your boss to make sure you are paid what they are supposed to this is overhead. If everybody is cheating everybody else and you have to spend all of your time making sure you aren't cheated this is overhead.

All of this overhead (wasted time and money) takes away from productive time and productive uses of money. It also takes away from the quality of life you experience and adds a lot of stress. This wasted effort and added stress means humanity as a whole isn't going to be making the progress it should. New inventions won't be made, new music won't be written, and new ideas won't be spread. Basically the dark ages.

I don't know how we are going to turn this around. People have to start being less self centered and more trustworthy, but our society is actually heading in the opposite direction right now. Our entire culture seems to be pushing us into being less trustworthy and I don't know how to change that.