Blog: We’re all in together, so let’s show each other a bit of trust and respect

Trust is at the very heart of what it means to be human. In fact, if we hadn’t evolved to trust each when early hominids first walked the Earth, there might be no humans at all.

In some countries in the world, trust is very low. In Albania in 2022, just 3 per cent of people agreed with the statement ‘most people can be trusted’.

In other countries, trust is very high. In Denmark, 74 per cent say most people can be trusted. In Norway, it’s 72 per cent. Finland? 68 per cent.

The UK is somewhere in the middle. Some 43 per cent of us think most people can be trusted – and that figure hasn’t changed much over the last 10 years.

Collective solidarity and trust

When our unjust economy doesn’t provide suitable work for people, households can use their rights to social security to try to get by. It’s there not just for people who are out of work, or who can't work – around four in ten people on Universal Credit are in employment and nearly three-quarters of children in poverty in Scotland are in working households.

Social security is just one part of the shared public good that we’ve built to support each other over the years - things like the NHS, social care, education, public transport, roads. As a society we decided that the shameful days of the workhouse and the Poor Laws should be put firmly behind us.

To work, that system relies on collective solidarity and trust.

We all pay in, and we all benefit

But there are some people who don’t trust their friends and neighbours.

It can be easy to think of 'taxpayers' and 'people who use the system' as separate groups - especially when public debate frames it like this. But the reality is that most of us move in and out of these roles during our lives, perhaps because of caring responsibilities, or becoming ill, or just not being able to find work that pays the bills. And people who don’t pay Income Tax still pay VAT and other taxes - and that takes a big chunk out of their income. People on the lowest incomes often pay a higher share in tax of the little they have than some of the very richest.

Very few of us would ever criticise someone for going to their GP – but too many of us feel empowered to criticise and stigmatise people who use our social security system.

The public good works because all of us are part of it. We all pay in, and we all benefit.

Let’s be Humankind

If we trust each other, if we listen to the evidence showing that human nature is inherently good, if we listen to what Lincoln called ‘the better Angels of our nature’ - we can build a better future together. Most of us want to live in a society where people are treated fairly with dignity and respect and can get support when things are tough. Instead of pointing at others, we can work together to rebuild trust in social security and in all the other public institutions that help strengthen equality, mutual respect, and economic opportunity.

That’s the kind of vision people across Scotland want to hear in the election debate.