Book Review - Trust: America’s Best Chance
(Written for Data Science Quarterly)
“What I came to realize is this: trust, often unseen, is indispensable for a healthy, functioning society. And in the absence of trust, nothing that works can work well.” – Pete Buttigieg, Trust: America’s Best Chance
In his book, Trust: American’s Best Chance, Pete Buttigieg effectively identifies and articulates a root cause of the dysfunction of our divided American society-the erosion of our trust networks. He details the events, individuals, and technological developments that led to the erosion of trust over the past 50-60 years and then offers his hypothesis about how we Americans can restore trust in institutions, each other, and the American project of democracy.
Buttigieg brings immediate credibility to his hypothesis about the necessity of solving the trust problem by beginning the book with his personal observation of an environment in which there is an absence of trust–a war zone. Buttigieg was as an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve from 2009 to 2017, serving seven months of 2014 in Afghanistan. Along with his duties as liaison officer for his small unit, he was tasked with being the go-to vehicle driver, essentially a “Military Uber” as he calls it, in transporting newly arrived team members from the airport to their military base, which required a treacherous trip through the streets of Kabul. He developed distrustful behaviors as self-defense because of the unknown yet constant possibility of a life-threatening encounter with the enemy. Many who have spent time in war zones return home with the toxicity of functioning as if every waking thought is fraught with fear and danger. Through these lived experiences, he observed that society works best when we can take its functions for granted and trust that our personal safety is never in doubt.
The next part of the book is devoted to detailing the events since World War II that have caused the erosion of trust. Buttigieg highlights the Vietnam War and Watergate scandal as incidents which eroded trust on a national scale and attempts to blame both Democrats and Republicans for sewing doubt. Staunch conservatives might not appreciate Buttigieg characterizing Reagan’s 1980’s presidential platform as a campaign that saw an ideological advantage in stoking doubts in our federal government, but Buttigieg also cites President Clinton’s declaration in his 1996 State of the Union address that, “The era of big government is over.”
One of the strongest parts of the book that both sides of the aisle can appreciate is his explanation of the role of the media in stoking distrust and division. As he explains, media on all sides have taken shortcuts to winning credibility by simply asking people to join them in distrusting the other side rather than focusing on consistent, hard-won credibility. This approach is also lucrative and self-perpetuating as people become less and less willing to listen to outside voices. He makes the case that the presentation of two-sided debates on cable outlets such as CNN skew facts because they present “false equivalence” by implying that both sides are equally valid even when one side has been discredited by facts.
Another factor that stokes contempt between factions in our society is inequality. As Buttigieg argues, unless we figure out a way to close the income gap between rich and poor, it will be increasingly difficult for those born into low-income families to exceed beyond their economic standing and achieve the idealized concept of the American dream. This widespread and institutionally maintained disparity between American households further encourages tension and distrust of both the government and members of society who benefit the most from this inequality.
The last part of the book is devoted to potential solutions to rebuilding trust. One of the main points is that the 2020s will be a decade that will determine the future of our country. In order to solve massive challenges such as the pandemic, inequality, and climate change, Buttigieg stresses that we must quickly learn how to trust each other. We must harness the power of group belonging. He suggests that community service builds trust because it forces people who may or may not have anything in common to work with each other. Buttigieg recommends that the government needs to pick key spots to intervene in people’s lives, such as creating a fair tax code.
Buttigieg may have missed an opportunity to delve deeper into the potential of technology in rebuilding trust, which is somewhat surprising given his tenure with McKinsey. Late in the book he references the existence of new technologies that make it easier to verify facts. This would have been a perfect place to extoll the virtues of applying blockchain technology as an immutable ledger for recording facts. He dances painfully close to the concept of smart contracts in blockchain when he discusses the importance of contracts in building trust by defining mutual expectations.
I also found the book to be heavy on broad concepts such as decreasing inequality to build trust but light on specifics. The book is only 179 pages, so detailing solutions may not have been in the plan. However, Buttigieg articulately defines the lack of trust as the root cause of dysfunction in our society and distrust as the first barrier in solving the challenges of present times. This should provide focus and opportunity for data science, a practice built around establishing facts and translating those facts into insights to solve problems in public policy.
