My international friends chuckled at the title. Only in America, they said. Elsewhere, people are born understanding the game. They expect craftiness in business. Making money off the next guy is a principle of life.

        Here, we have to learn it from books.

        The culture of trust is strongest in the Midwest and rural South, where mom-and-pop stores still accept checks and people still list themselves in the phone book.

        This was a revelation to me when I moved to Kentucky from the urban distrust zone of South Florida. There, the phone book was a joke; everyone of any use to me had an unlisted number. By contrast, Midwesterners believe in the quaint notion that somebody might need to reach them. They trust it won't be a stalker.
       

Social networks

        This appealing vibe isn't a function of individual trustworthiness, says Rhys Williams, a sociologist at the University of Cincinnati. In trustful societies, the key is overlapping social networks, he says. People will trust a certain businessman because they know him from church or high school or through mutual friends. If he lets them down, a whole network of people will hear about it. This web of relationships helps keep everyone honest.

        That's the theory, anyway. Our current scandal has exposed the downside.
       

Whom do you trust?

        The Erpenbeck Co., once a major developer in Greater Cincinnati, is under investigation for pocketing $25 million in checks earmarked for lending agencies. As a result, 220 home buyers are now discovering unpaid debts linked to their homes.

        The trust culture played a role. Title agents were supposed to make sure the home buyers' checks went to pay off the first mortgages. Instead, they trusted Erpenbeck to keep the checks and deliver them to the lenders.

        Until recently, this had been common with other developers, too.

        “I think that's insane. That would not happen here,” says Mary Beth Ballard, an attorney with the Chicago Title Insurance Co. in Cleveland.

        Her company would fire agents who put their trust in developers above their duty to home buyers, she says.

        Home closings have long been more informal in Greater Cincinnati. For instance, buyers here usually do not purchase title insurance to cover themselves in Erpenbeck-like situations. Realtors don't push it, and buyers trust they won't need it.

        We also may be the only place in the country where people buy homes and then let the former owners live there for another month. Imagine how this would play in, say, New York City.

        “You wanna do what? Live in my house for a month? What are you, Kato Kaelin?”

        No, we say, just a Cincinnatian who promises to be good.

        I hope our optimism survives the Erpenbeck mess. Somehow, we must lose our naivete without giving up our trust.

        “Two inches of paperwork is not equal to the handshake of an honest person,” Ms. Ballard says. “But there aren't any honest people left.”

        That's the verdict in Cleveland, anyway.

        Contact: (859) 578-5584 or e-mail ksamples@enquirer.com.

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