Do you trust Big Business to act in a responsible way? Do you think Big Tech, Walmart, and the other massive companies that dominate the American economy will act as they should?
If not, you’re not alone. According to a recent survey of how people around the world feel about the social responsibility of businesses, more than half of America thinks that businesses can’t be trusted to “do the right thing.”
In fact, as Martin Armstrong reported on Statista, while some nations like India and China generally trust businesses to act as they should, Americans generally don’t. In his words:
A strong level of trust with customers is going to prove hugely important for recovering businesses when the pandemic finally comes to an end (or at least progresses to a stage closer to normality). A survey by Edelman Research polled 36,000 respondents in 28 countries about their trust in business to “do the right thing” in November 2021. The research found that people in China, Indonesia and India have the highest trust at 84 percent, 81 percent and 79 percent, respectively.
The figure was far lower in the United States at 49 percent while it was lower still in Russia at just 34 percent. In all, eleven countries saw an increase in trust in business, while eleven recorded a decrease. Interestingly, business is trusted more than government in 23 out of the 28 countries surveyed. Average trust in business globally was 61 percent, compared to 52 percent in government.
What makes that result yet worse is that business is overwhelmingly the most trusted institution. Though Americans generally don’t trust it, the Edelman poll found that businesses are more trusted than the government, NGOs, or the media.
Still, though it might be higher than the crushingly low trust ratings given to those other groups, it’s bad news for business that people don’t trust it to do the right thing, as that lack of trust is almost entirely self-inflicted.
Americans are by their nature a generally pro-capitalist, free-market people. But, over the past few decades, they’ve seen businesses force them to train foreigners how to do their jobs before firing them, watched manufacturing facilities move to low-wage nations abroad, and seen corporate fat cats make millions for doing nothing while those few employees lucky enough to keep their jobs haven’t seen a real wage gain in years.
In short, what they’ve watched is businesses intentionally hollow out the American middle class and manufacturing sector so that a few corporate oligarchs can become fabulously wealthy on stock options and the slight profit increases that come with building goods abroad rather than in America.
Oh, and while Americans that go broke are given little help, those companies that gambled irresponsibly in the run-up to 2008 were bailed out. Then, during the Covid pandemic, they fired everyone they could as a way of protecting profits rather than helping the average worker.
The unsurprising result is a lack of trust in business. How could they trust the companies that brought about a horrible recession, fired them, shipped their jobs overseas, and then rewarded a few oligarchs with Caligula-like wealth?
By: Gen Z Conservative, editor of GenZConservative.com. Follow me on Parler and Gettr.
This story syndicated with permission from Will – Trending Politics