I am so tired of name-calling, hate, rudeness, self-serving lying, and divisiveness. Just exhausted of it. Deeply exhausted, down to my bones. Aren't you?

For many many years, I have taught students that trust is a public good. We each contribute to a creating a trusting society. The trust you help build benefits me. Trust makes the economy work so much better. It makes it easier to trade with one another. And it makes us happier.

And the erosion of trust by lying, self-dealing, name-calling hurts us all. We rely more on lawyers than trust, we fight over what we have rather than building more. We focus on fear and hate which drains us, rather than love and kindness which sustains us.

The reason we need honest, fair, kind people in government is because they help build a trusting society. And building trust among members of society fuels more long-run economic growth than any corporate tax cut can.

So realize that the damage that is and has been done by our national divisiveness goes beyond our national unhappiness. It has eroded our economy and it has made it harder to solve problems (thanks COVID for illustrating this point).