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Thoughts on intangible wealth

Last night, amongst many things, my friend Inayat and I discussed trust. It made me think of an article I read in 2007 about the world's intangible wealth.

Trust - definition aside - seems to be an important indicator of intangible wealth, value that is not accounted for in our conventional methods of economic transactions and accounting.

Trust within both the public and the private sectors, across any hierarchy in any form of institution.

Essentially, if there is lack of trust within the hierarchies, civil society suffers as a whole. If there is a solid level of trust, civil society gains.

Now, some organizations, indeed nation states, may find ways of enforcing trust, for example, through market-based contracts with liability clauses, or through the arm of the law.

Other organizations, such as in those developing countries that experience severe corruption, would need to rely on a high levels of unaccounted-for trust to get work done.

Of course, organizational behaviour is also dependent on space and time, so things could be different when taking a closer look. But in general, trust is integral to civil society. It is the lifeblood of the relations we have with each other. No lifeblood, no relations, no peace.
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