This is an ok summary: "High-trust societies display a high degree of mutual trust not imposed by outside "contractual, legal or hierarchical regulation", but

This is an ok summary: "High-trust societies display a high degree of mutual trust not imposed by outside "contractual, legal or hierarchical regulation", but instead are based upon "prior moral consensus". Much writing on the subject refers to Francis Fukuyama's 1995 book, Trust: Social Virtues and Creation of Prosperity, in which he describes "the ability of various peoples to organize effectively for commercial purposes without relying on blood ties or government intervention". A useful test imo is: would you feel comfortable leaving your expensive Macbook, unattended in public, confident nothing would happen to it? In Tokyo? Sure. Chicago, Detroit, NYC... Maybe not. People doing "the right thing" on their own, when nobody is watching. The big American cities used to be more like Tokyo in that regard. Now, you get stolen from and everyone agrees you were stupid and its wholly your fault. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_trust_and_low_trust_societies https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_trust_and_low_trust_soc...