Yes, I think about this often. The US used to be a high trust society. It has lost much of that in my lifetime.
Causes:
Money is an abstraction of reputation and honor, and we have made it an (almost) total replacement. The problem with money is it does not have a record of how it was earned, unlike reputation.
Extreme individualism. Almost no sense of community or commons. Everything is about the ego.
Cars. Driving has become our main (and almost only) form of social interaction with our community. And it is all about "winning" as an individual, not about working together to get through a difficult situation. See all the HN comments about rude driving as the norm.
Causes:
Money is an abstraction of reputation and honor, and we have made it an (almost) total replacement. The problem with money is it does not have a record of how it was earned, unlike reputation.
Extreme individualism. Almost no sense of community or commons. Everything is about the ego.
Cars. Driving has become our main (and almost only) form of social interaction with our community. And it is all about "winning" as an individual, not about working together to get through a difficult situation. See all the HN comments about rude driving as the norm.
Could go on, won't.