There exist a large cadre of politicians that consistently run on the platform that the government is incompetent and should not be trusted, win elections, and then go out of their way to prove it.

Theres also a large cadre of politician worldwide that consistently run on the platform that government is all-knowing from Venezuela, Korea in the 50s, Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, lots of central America, Chile, Italy, Greece, etc.

And still, go out their way to prove it doesn't work. Should you really ever trust a system that individuals can sabotage so easily on purpose or not?

For certain values of "trust" and "working".

For example, having the highest incarceration rate in the world would be consistent with both authoritarianism (a form of high trust in government) and not really working all that well.

What a crazy statement. The reason the USD is so highly valued is because there is such high trust in the government. There’s a reason countries with low trust have to come to NYC to sell bonds.

Society is much more productive when you don’t have to worry how much to bribe everyone.

But as American, I always feel like the government does its job and nothing more and does not terrible is because no one trusts it.

No one gets lazy about keeping a critical eye on it. We also don't give it complex tasks cause it would just mess it up so it only does really big simple things.

We look at other places that trust their government and it always historically goes wrong as soon as you give blind trust. Like if Trump got elected in a well-oiled machine that mechanism that necessitated blind trust. I don't want a smart capable government. Give me a dumb one that does simple things any day especially if the people in the country are capable.

The trust in the government comes from the skepticism of the citizens.

No, it really doesn't. It's a hold-over from a time when the government could be trusted. Perceptions lag reality.

The government of the US is no more or less capable than its ever been. People lives are just to short to realize it.

> The government of the US is no more or less capable than its ever been. People lives are just to short to realize it.

Ah that old chestnut -- the ostrich in the sand approach. I like it!

Low trust in government is the mantra of the US and it's an issue.

Look at Russia, people there have high trust in government.

Look at Norway, people there have a high trust in government. The problem isn't trust in government, it's the quality of the government.

I don't think you should use an exception historically its apt to go bad rather than good in most cases. Norway is one bad leader away.

And Russia is one good leader away.

Your government shouldn't have the capability to titer on that. Good, bad, or medium leader things should march on.

That's entirely separate. You should be able to trust a government that's wrapped in checks and balances.

That’s not as true as you might think