>And then some sociologist somewhere wonders why trust in governments is plummeting around the world. Actually, I think it's the other way around. It was the s

>And then some sociologist somewhere wonders why trust in governments is plummeting around the world. Actually, I think it's the other way around. It was the same in Communist ruled Romania. In the 1960's, the times were quite good. Good economy, good freedom, little government oppression since the average folk had it quite good and little reason to revolt despite the totalitarian regime. But as the economy started to go downhill, and quality of live kept decreasing as shortages for food and essentials increased, the government oppression increased with it. Basically, the way I see it, the more unhappy the citizens get due to erosions in their quality of life and the obvious increase in wealth inequality in the last decades, mostly driven due to unaffordability of homes, then the more driven towards oppression and surveillance the governments get as they fear the potential backlash from the citizens and don't want to get "Ceausescud"[1]. In other words, better to preemptively stop a revolution before it happens, hence the increase in surveillance. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_and_execution_of_Nicolae_and_Elena_Ceau%C8%99escu#Execution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_and_execution_of_Nicolae...