Global Trust In Business Plummeted In 2008: Edelman Survey

BOSTON (Reuters) - Trust in business plummeted worldwide last year, as the global economic crisis sent financial institutions pleading for government support, leaving average people to question industry's ability to bring prosperity, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

Some 62 percent of informed adults aged 25 to 64 told the Edelman Trust Barometer that they trusted businesses less than they had a year ago, with respondents in the United States and Western Europe more suspicious than those in emerging economies.

The biggest drops came in Ireland, where 83 percent of respondents said they had lost trust in business; in Japan, where 79 percent grew more wary; and in the United States, where 77 percent became more suspicious.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[1201SLD]

I'm surprised that there is any trust in "Business". Whether it was the tobacco companies' obfuscation, the auto industry's stonewalling, or Microsoft's anti-trust violations, Business and the power of Business have always been suspect at best.

[Chopin]

This current global substantial drop in confidence in business is a good development. It's the necessary precursor component to a global paradyme shift. The entire global village of nations will now have a realistic chance to make a leap from unsustainable bubble economies based on short-term business profit motive, exploitive speculative non-renewable growth and predatory competition, to sustainable long-term globally balanced "green" economies based on a business model of network of collaborative "win-win" centers of harmonized production and consumption with a soul, on a worldwide humanistic foundation for planetary survival.

It is not possible to start a new way of global reorganization for sustainable economic and human growth without shedding some old unsustainable habits of thought, social organization, methods of doing business, and unreliable model of global human activities. The entire global business model is going into chapter 11 bankruptcy. To re-emerge and succeed from this global economic debacle and loss of confidence, it will require a global human reorientation for long-term sustainable prosperity. It's a matter of reorganization for planetary survival. The window of opportunity for an unprecedented immense global turnaround to succeed is less than 10 years.

[mrcontinental]

Finally folks are waking up; I guess losing 40 to 60 percent of your net worth has that affect.

[Bitsko]

Yet another Ponzi scheme uncovered.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1874283,00.html

[FreedomCorpse]

yep. sounded like their 'business model' was to get investors .... that's it.

[jcollell]

People have lost confidence in business. Duh!!! But that does not let the irresponsible consumer off the hook.

http://www.youspar.com/

[Bitsko]

A little chuckle for everyone:
http://img.timeinc.net//time/cartoons/20090116/cartoons_06.jpg

[research]

Unfettered Capitalism is

Revealed to be

Robber barons

Wanting us to be their peasants.

Regulated capitalism,

with social services for all,

is the greatest system on earth.

FDR was right, Hoover was wrong.

[lex811]

sleep with dawgs....wake up with fleas.

[MyTake]

When the voice tape of the Bank of America conference call, now on the front page of this site, gets into the blogosphere, these numbers are going to ring in at 100% across the board.

[themodernleader]

A Company I am acquainted took to building several million dollars of moving machines for a long time client. About the time for delivery the client said that he couldn't buy the machines. Now the Company is on the verge of bankruptcy.

[WIpatriot]

Sounds like the Company management needs a lesson in Sales Contracts.

[IllinoisTexan43]

The company I used to work for (plant closed), used to promote from within, even up to the senior executive ranks. By the time a person made it that far, he usually had numerous family members and friends employed in the company. So that person really had a vested interest in keeping the company solvent. But in the late 80's they fell under the spell of the hot-shot rock star CEO types who demanded huge sums of money to make the company bigger, better, faster. Well, long story short, in the last 12 years they have closed 4 plants, laid off thousands and their stock price is still in the toilet. When these companies start hiring management or promoting into management, people who truly care about their business instead of how big of a compensation package they can get, you will see a fundamental change in how businesses are run.

[FreedomCorpse]

Excellent example of how fraudulent the 'almighty executive management' meme. I worked for a company that was growing very fast and was making money the whole time but then started bringing in hot shots from outside and the place went into the toilet within 2 years.

[brighterlight]

My experiences and reflections of what's wrong with the high-tech Silicon Valley corporate America scene from these past 2.5 decades can be summed up in a few words: management.... poor, ignorant, uncaring, greedy, fearful, self-serving, compartmentalized management. We've had a few decades of up and down economic cycles that have bred inflated titles, inflated salaries to match the real estate prices, and god-awful egos. It is so hard to find a decent manager or set of manager is any one of these many, many companies. It's as if they are cut from the same dysfuntional clothe. I don't know why or how, but it I've really decided that what really goes afoul with a lot of these companies has to do with the management (top management down to lower level management --- although the lower levels are really the most clueless.) I have finally decided that it's the corporate institution that breeds the beasts.

[MetalCanuck]

I owuld trust crooks that are propped up by the government with our tax money either.

[marijam]

Want to learn even more about corporations? Read this.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2009/01/fiscal-therapy.html

[Culturemaven]

We, not be. Didn't notice the typo on my cut and paste!

[Culturemaven]

"We can't go on together
With suspicious minds
And be can't build our dreams
On suspicious minds"

Yes, we're caught in a trap.

[Montanagramma]

and we can't go on!!