Behind The Mic With Joe Mathieu: Big Lack Of Trust In America

BOSTON (CBS) - There is a big lack of trust in this country when it comes to major institutions like our government and Wall Street. And that skepticism is spreading to the American people themselves. You and me.

Gallup is out with its annual Governance Survey, finding just 61-percent of us trust one another to make judgments about political issues facing the country. That's down some 20-percentage points in the past decade.

The survey also found that our trust in government and the news media are at or near historic lows.

And researchers say we shouldn't be surprised by any of this if you consider what's happening in Washington.

Apparently we don't like all the choices our neighbors make when they vote.

Congressional approval ratings are in the toilet and they are infecting the way we look at each other. The increase in partisanship is only making it worse.

But it's not only politics in play. Much of the decline in trust in the American people has happened since 2009 when the economy was in bad shape.

Here we are 5 years later and we're talking about another possible government shutdown. If that happens, the economy will be hurt, the partisanship will get worse and the trust we have in one another could fall even further – no matter who is to blame.

Follow Joe on Twitter @joemathieuwbz

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