Faith in others is the stuff of the human web. Its other name is confidence , literally together-faith . Without true believers, people whose word is their guarantee, all human transactions are in danger of collapse. Sign an agreement to end an injustice, and without faith the agreement is flimsier than the paper it is written on. Ironically, loss of confidence is felt publicly first in that icon of individualism, the market economy.
Consumer confidence is a key indicator to economic growth.
Yet the underbelly of business, the kind of competition that rejects the weak and wounds all but the toughest, is too rarely challenged. Bosnia and Somalia show what occurs when faith is betrayed too often. Faithful servants of corporations can find themselves unemployed and unemployable at a moment s notice. Relationships that tempered the toughness of the workplace through weeks and years are brushed aside. The result is wariness, distrust and cynicism among people who feel their faith betrayed.