Apart from the tangible miseries that can be laid at the feet of unemployment rates at quarter-century highs, another casualty is the erosion of trust. This recession's particularly bad by simple virtue of the vices of avarice and gluttony that triggered it. With the bar thus lowered, you see the bottom-feeders slithering out from under their rocks to fight over the scraps.
And the new lows are rather depressing, particularly as I cleaned out my spam-box today. Why would I (who am female) be emailing myself promises of enlarging, er, appendages I don't actually have? Facebook ads, likewise: Why would my confidence in a teeth-whitener or wrinkle-remover be boosted by the fact that it was "discovered by a mom?" Grant you, my Mom has a biology degree and did great gobs of Chemistry coursework in the process. But neither qualifies her to mix up any wonder cream in the kitchen sink. Or the out-and-out sleazeballs like the folks who tried to make my browser look like a free Windows application scanning my hard drive for viruses. Very convincing stuff...except for the fact that I'm running Ubuntu.
Today's blog post from the always-fantabulous Seth Godin delves into this better than I ever could. But I actually think he's too modest with that last paragraph. America's been living in fear for over seven years (for reasons both reasonable as well as the confection of demagogues who never waste a crisis). The institutions--businesses, non-profits, public institutions--that earn our collective trust stand to make leapfrog gains in the next several years. Sure, the sleazemeisters will never run short of gullible people. All the same, we (meaning America and friends) are in a place we haven't been for at least a generation. Those who realize that and act accordingly will be in commanding positions--be it in terms of money, influence or thought-leadership--for quite some time.
