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Old 04-25-2007, 06:48 PM
Brainwalter Brainwalter is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Bragging about beats.
Posts: 4,336
Default Re: What makes the US Govt trustworthy?

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I think that when people "keep their word", it's because it was in their best interest to do so. I don't really consider this "trust".

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I trust my friends to do right by me and not stab me in the back, because I know them to be trustworthy and they're my friends.

I trust pokerstars to send me my money back when i ask for it, because they have demonstrated trustworthiness and it's in their best interest (I don't know Lee Jones personally).

I don't trust the US government to, say, keep their promises to repay their Social Security obligations (or the regular debt for that matter) because they have demonstrated unstrustworthiness AND the incentives are not there that make it in their best interest to keep their word. (I don't know them personally either).
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