(Roughly) Daily

… and in its absence? Millie Giles on the state of trust in American professions…

When choosing a career, there are several (often contradictory) factors that determine people’s decisions: pay, of course; personal interests; work-life balance; location; public perception; and how a particular job might weigh on their conscience.

But which professions do Americans trust the most?

A recent Gallup poll, [published last Monday], found that 76% of US adults considered nurses to have high or very high honesty and ethical standards, with teachers, military officers, and pharmacists also scoring highly amongst those surveyed.

Conversely, Americans were skeptical about the ethical standards of TV reporters (55% considered low or very low), members of Congress (68%), and lobbyists (68%) — perhaps because the public perception of professionals in political and media-related fields is that many of them have ulterior motives, as is the case with stereotypically mercenary car salespeople and lawyers, which also ranked negatively overall.

Lloyd Blankfein, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, infamously said in November 2009 — with the impacts of the global financial crisis still reverberating loudly — that he and his fellow bankers were “doing God’s work.” Ridiculed at the time, he might be pleased to see his once vilified profession ranked not far behind the clergy, per Gallup.

Zooming out: the average of high/very high ethical ratings across the core 11 professions sunk to just 30% in 2024, with trust in medical doctors in particular having dropped 14 percentage points since 2021…

“America’s most trusted professions,” from @sherwood.news @Gallup

* H. L. Mencken

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As we contemplate confidence, we might recall that it was on this date in 1980 that news of the FBI’s Abscam operation, targeting corrupt Congress members and other elected officials, broke publicly. The two-year investigation had initially targeted trafficking in stolen property and illicit business people, but later evolved into a corruption investigation; it led to the convictions of six members of the United States House of Representatives and one member of the United States Senate, along with one member of the New Jersey State Senate, members of the Philadelphia City Council, the Mayor of Camden, New Jersey, and an inspector for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The Abscam operation wass dramatized in the 2013 feature film American Hustle, directed by David O. Russell, which received ten Academy Award nominations.