Bill Gates is optimistic about welcoming 2022. This is reflected in his latest publication in his blog post entitled 'Reasons for optimism after a difficult year'.
The positive thing contained in the article is the possibility of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic which has already begun to show its end. He also discussed about the popular Metaverse.
But one particular problem can slow or derail much of that progress. According to the Founder of Microsoft, this is all due to one of the reasons for the public's distrust of the government.
"This is one of the issues I'm most worried about going into 2022," he wrote.
Public institutions, Gates said, need to be major players in struggles such as tackling climate change or preventing the next pandemic. But this can be difficult if people don't cooperate.
"If your people don't trust you, they won't support big new initiatives. And when major crises arise, they're less likely to follow the guidance needed to weather the storm," Gates said.
Such distrust has become very clear since the pandemic hit. Corona misinformation has spread around the world thereby hampering the country's vaccination rate.
Pew Research Center research from pre-COVID-19 shows the same trend. In a 2019 poll of American adults, 75% of respondents said their fellow citizens' trust in the federal government was shrinking.
Another 64% of voters say Americans' trust in one another is also shrinking. About four in ten respondents think distrust makes it harder to deal with issues such as health care, immigration and gun violence.
In Gates' blog post, he notes that the 24-hour news cycle, politically-incented headlines, and social media are each playing a role in the growing divide. Governments may need to regulate online platforms to effectively eliminate misinformation and misleading.
The issue of public trust is a difficult problem to solve. In fact, Gates said he wasn't sure how to find a solution.
"This is usually where I'll lay out my ideas on how we can fix the problem," he wrote.
"I plan to continue to seek out and read other people's ideas, especially from young people. I hope the generation that grew up online will have fresh ideas about how to tackle problems that are so entrenched on the Internet," Gates continued. Thus launched CNBC, Tuesday (12/28/2021).
