Trust

The essay which I translated from a social commentary is about the theme of trust. For one thing, I want to improve my writing skills. For another thing, being an ESL teacher, I hope to translate the stories into English to demonstrate my students the importance of trust. This essay is rather long and its first part has been corrected by a senior teacher, Ms. AlpheccaStars. However, I have rewritten some parts of it. Please patiently give me a correction. Thanks a lot.

Trust

When trust breaks down, society will collapse.

Recently, I read a thought-provoking social commentary about trust. It was written by a local editorialist in Taiwan whose meaningful and heartfelt words are earnest enough to prompt us to deep thought. I would like to relate it in first person in writing and share it with you.

First, let me tell a social news which occurred about four years ago. Hui-Ju Yang, a young girl, who was up to her neck in debt by her credit card debts amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars during the four years of her college life, made a killing by taking advantage of her credit card’s octuple bonus feedback, participating in internet auction, and earning infomercial’s concessionary gift certificates after graduating at college. Her misconduct was widely supported by people with card debt problems, and she was even given the title of “the goddess of credit card arbitrageurs”. In addition to those card debtors, according to an opinion poll showed including Consumers' Foundation, Executive Yuan Consumer Protection Board, prosecutors, and a great many people supported for her.

On the other hand, however, some print media in Taiwan also made negative comments on her boldness of her business methods, indicating that many of her crafty measures indeed breached the agreements for credit card purchases. Notwithstanding the fact that her tricky practice didn’t not amount to criminal deception, it was a controversial behavior which had attracted social censure. Her behavior doesn’t conform to established standards of honesty, trust, and uprightness.

Miss Yang turned her debt into gain, making a profit which amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars from the issuing bank. She pitted her wits against a credit card company and gained a great victory which won the praise of some people in the society. Lately, she established an Internet consultancy company and repeatedly tried to generate media exposure. Now, she has become a public figure; even more, she is planning to run for elected office. We are worried that if she is elected to congress, she will have the power to modify or enact new laws with the intention to feather her own nest. All things considered, only a society which is unable to distinguish between right and wrong, moral turpitude will regard this dishonesty immoral behavior as Miss Yang’s action as a heroic deed.

Let me take another example as follows.

In the US, if you do the shopping at a store, you can take the goods back to the store and demanded a refund without any condition. Therefore, some people (a small part of Taiwanese and more large part of mainland Chinese) are going to attend an important banquet in a couple of days, they will buy a suit of designer clothes in advance. After they came for the feast with the suit, they would take it back to the store and got their money back in full.

Stores in the US also offer a benefit: if you purchase an item which is higher than the most recent price reduction, you can ask for a partial refund to make up the price difference. Thereupon, some unworthy guys would take the opportunity to buy commodities in normal days when the stores have a full range of specifications and sizes and don’t offer discount sale. Waiting the seasons for sales, they would take their receipt to the store to refund the difference.

These people are immensely pleased themselves with their own disgraceful tricks and still tell everyone about their cleverness. Even more, they wonder why many others are so “stupid” that they don’t know how to exploit the loopholes in the regulations. Those people consider it “clever” to take advantage of other people in a devious way, refer to sneakiness as “being a great capacity,” regard sowing dissension among the ethnic groups as “reconciliation and coexistence.” It is really value in confusion.

Speaking of “the goddess of credit card arbitrageurs” makes me (the author) think of Warren Edward Buffett, an American business magnate, investor and philanthropist, who is noted for his adherence to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_investing. Many local Taiwanese stock investors concerned about Buffett’s criteria of stock selection strategy, but more often than not they ignored the core value which he repeatedly stressed: honesty, trust, and credit. He places great emphasis on personal integrity of a corporation’s CEO and never deals with crooked, unchaste, immodest companies.

The examples above give us a lesson. If you know how to exploit loopholes in the law to get ill-gotten gains nowadays, you will modify the laws to make your illegal profits lawful when you come to power in the future. Over the years, we have seen too many examples like this.

Next, let me talk about a story of my personal experience.
Ten years ago, I took a break travel to the US with my three-year-old son. We lodged at a relative’s house. He gave me a brand-new child safety seat and said, “Demanded by the traffic laws here, a child must be seated in the child safety seat in a car. This one is for you. Please try not to smear it as much as possible because it was borrowed from somebody and I shall give it back to its owner.”

Two weeks later, I no longer needed to drive. He returned the half-new child safety seat back to the hypermarket to get his money back in full. He smugly said, “In the US, stores take goods back if customers can produce the receipt. If goods are returned within two weeks, customers will get their money back in full. So we often come here to ‘borrow’ something in this way. More than this, some mainlanders (from China) even ‘borrow’ TV sets in this way. You see? Aren’t Americans stupid? The loophole of unconditional refund is so big that it allows people to easily exploit the system. It’s unbelievable that management seems to be unaware of this loophole.”

The next year, I went to Japan on business. A Taiwanese friend working in Tokyo received me and he drove me to go around. I asked him, “Isn’t it hard to find a parking space in such a populous and crowded city as Tokyo, a metropolis?”

"Why so serious? The city government requires drivers to provide proof of private parking space before buying a vehicle. The measure would relieve congestion on streets and offer more space for pedestrians. Therefore, here in Tokyo there are not that extraordinary number of cars as you imagine," he answered.

"Wow! You have a private parking space? It must be awfully expensive, mustn't it?" I asked.

“You are such a dork. How can you be so rigid as Japanese? Rent a parking space first, then get the car registered, and next terminate the tenancy of parking space. Wasn’t the problem solved? It was not insurmountable,” he replied.

Several days later, it turned to a Japanese friend hosting to me. The treatment was reduced to two legs and Tokyo Metro. He politely said, “Here in Tokyo, it’s much easier to keep a car than to buy a parking space. I’m sorry to have you travel by packing into the subway car.”

I imparted him a finesse crack method that my Taiwanese friend revealed to me. Unexpectedly, he didn’t have the ecstasy of enlightenment, but just indifferently said, “If I really want to exploit loopholes in the law, there will be full of loopholes. For example, my mother lives in the country. As long as I had reported to the local authorities for change of domicile to my mother’s residence, it would be fine for me to buy a car. However, I am actually living in Tokyo. If I bought a car without a parking space, how would my neighbors rate me? If I drove a car to work, how should I face my colleagues and boss? A decent, upright, honest person will never do so.”

The operating mechanism of unconditional refund in the U.S. stores and ubiquitous legal loopholes in Japan are both set up on the basis of trust. Trust is the easiest thing in the world to lose, and the hardest thing in the world to get back. When trust breaks down, society will collapse. Therefore, they can tolerate politicians doing something wrong, but they can’t forgive politicians for telling lies.

How about here and now in Taiwan?

We are living in an island of tricky world, where the true mingled with the false, causing us not to know whether to believe what we reads in the news. The island is engaged in falsehoods, fraud, deceit, dishonest, or misrepresentation. Thus, scams are everywhere and everyone should put up their guard. Our whole society system is functioned on the basis of distrust, and each trying to cheat or outwit the other. Even we have taken the policy of corruption prevention priority over revenue generation, the result is those who are as bold as brass grab and plunder what they could get by artful deceit and force. The issuing bank, China Trust Commercial Bank, suffered a loss by Miss Yang, an arbitrageur who earned back a profit amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars which was unjustified enrichment. Could it be said that trust and credit are a great irony of our society?

Thought and thinking affect behavior. Individual behavior may also extend to influence enterprise services and operation of society.

For instance, a serious of food safety scandals in Taiwan which have hurt consumers’ confidence is really scary. Scandals after scandals have erupted in the past couple of years, involving some of the most commonly used products, made by leading manufacturers. Soft drinks, fish balls, and cooking oil have all been found to be tainted with banned substances. The lack of accountability has put shoppers not knowing what can eat anymore that's safe. Shopping for groceries has never been such a daunting task for Taiwanese consumers who are not sure what we select is safe for our family.

Then, another story of my personal experience.

I remembered once when I was on the metro in Rome, I found out there was a ticket machine, but no checking machine (ticket inspector). Then and there I got suspicious and wondered what the heck how to make sure if the passengers have bought tickets. In this way, the Metro Corporation will definitely lose money on its operation. This is our inertial thinking which is always full of ourselves. We are used to using our opinionated guile or penny wise and pound foolish to seek for the countermeasure.

For Italians, however, they would find it strange how come we ask such an inscrutable question. On the basis of their faith, it's a matter of course to buy tickets while riding a vehicle. How can one take the metro without buying a ticket? Apparently, there is a discrepancy of value system between the two national characters. Do you really want to know whether it is feasible to take the metro without buying a ticket? Yes, it works. You can indeed get into the station to take the metro without a ticket. Nevertheless, you have to ensure that you won’t be caught by the righteous and nosy / busybody Italians because he or she would most likely to report you to the authorities. By then, you will be imposed a fine which is multiple times higher than the ticket fare. Furthermore, you would be to lose face and fall into contempt abroad. Nothing gained but, on the contrary, with a double loss.

Trust is the foundation for maintaining good interpersonal relations and creating a cooperative, healthy, good social network, where you will find your work pleasant. Establishing trust isn’t easy, yet important. Trusting each other gives us a sense of deep bonding. It signifies that we are united to fight the battles ahead.

Last, the other story of my personal experience.

There was one time that I visited world famous Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. After we bought tickets, the front desk clerk gave each of us a metal sheet about the size of a ten-dollar coin with two clips as a ticket, and so that we can easily pin the metal sheet on our collar. One of my friends who was a local citizen told me that visitors can go out at any time in midstream. If someone wants to go into the exhibition hall again, then he doesn’t need to turn in his ticket, and he can get admission by his original ticket. If he is sure not to get into it again, just put his ticket into the acrylic glass case at the doorway.

I couldn’t help wondering and asked, “Do the forms and colors of the tickets change every day?”

“No,” my friend answered.

“Would there be somebody taking the ticket home and coming here again with the same ticket? Or would there be ten people getting into the hall only by five tickets, and among one of five taking out the tickets to give the others tickets?” I asked again.

My friend broke into laughter and said, “Why do you think like that? Only you Taiwanese will think like that. We Americans’ thinking is much simpler: getting into the theater by paying a ticket, and going out by handing in your ticket. Basically, we Americans believe that everybody is a law abiding citizen, so there are few staff at the doorway.”

Suddenly, I felt quite ashamed that our concept of “corruption prevention takes priority over revenue generation” and the idea of “trying to find a loophole in the law” are parts of our culture.

Recently, I had a teaching at TSMC, the world's largest dedicated independent (pure-play) semiconductor foundry, in Hsinchu, Taiwan. I discovered that its restaurant was the same as other manufacturers’ for their ways of doing business were employed by outsourcing and they were clean, tidy, and bright. What the difference is there was no staff helping you dish up the meal at service of your meal, but doing it by yourself. There also offered fruits in bags at the end of the serving stand. A notion was posted on the wall, saying “One for each person.” There were few staff to attend to at the doorway, and each diner just checked out with his own badge, and the meal fee would be automatically docked from the paycheck at the end of the month. A Deputy Manager of TSMC told me that any one of the staff who dines at the restaurant without paying by checking out will get a warning for the first time. A staff was fired because he was caught for the second time.

A team without trust is just a group of individuals. Trust in each other gives strength and vitality to our relationships. While the higher of trust degrees is, the less management will be. Do you find that when you are under the circumstances of trust to live or work with your friends or colleagues, you will be on the same page with your partners and get things done efficiently? On the contrary, supposing that you are in a workplace of questioning with doubtful tone each other comes out of distrust can result in a series of unfortunate events and making nothing go right.

Since you have learned trust is vital to healthy relationships and healthy communities, from now on, open your mind to treat your companions with honest, trust, and integrity. Remember to be a trustworthy person and do the right thing.

Choose the right way, and the journey won’t be far away.