“In a former life, I did a Masters degree in International
Conflict Analysis (a fancy way to say ‘International Relations’).
As part of my thesis (‘The End of American Empire,’ a discussion of
the source of the United States’ ideological hegemony and reasons
for its imminent collapse), I read Francis Fukuyama’s
Trust. Basically, Fukuyama argues that high-trust
societies (Germany, Japan, United States) tend to be more
productive and economically prosperous than low-trust societies
(Italy, France, Korea). Trust matters, and translates into
cash.“Whether Fukuyama’s theory matches up with the real-world
economies or not, I do think it applies well to software…”