Every year, more and more people fight for the honor of purchasing homes inside of an HOA. The reason is simple. The HOA has become the only way to artificially recreate something that we lost: a high-trust society. Everyone wants to live in a neighborhood where the streets are safe, the houses are well maintained, and their neighbors are well-mannered. We call areas like these high trust because you don t have to worry about those around you taking advantage or violating basic rules of conduct.
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00:00:30.000Beginning in the 1960s, homeowners associations have exploded in popularity across the United States.
00:00:37.160That's not to say that anyone would describe their homeowners association as popular, though.
00:00:42.440The nightmare stories of busybody neighbors enforcing ridiculously specific regulations are legendary.
00:00:48.960But despite their reputation for domestic tyranny, every year more and more people fight for the honor of purchasing homes inside of an HOA.
00:01:06.400Everyone wants to live in a neighborhood where the streets are safe, the houses are well-maintained, and their neighbors are well-mannered.
00:01:12.900We call areas like these high-trust because you don't have to worry about those around you taking advantage or violating basic rules of conduct.
00:01:21.460Doors are left unlocked, children play in the streets, and home values rise.
00:01:25.700Most Americans once assumed that this was just the common state of a normal neighborhood.
00:01:33.580High-trust societies aren't an accident, and they're not normal, though they can arise spontaneously under certain conditions.
00:01:41.020Trust is created when people feel like they can understand and predict the actions of the people around them.
00:01:46.540This requires a shared cultural understanding of standards, how one conducts themselves, and how they maintain the property around them.
00:01:54.700When the same standards are understood and upheld by the community because they are second nature for the residents, very little enforcement is required.
00:02:03.660The people feel free, not because they can just do whatever they want, but because they are living in accordance with their own way of being.
00:02:09.780The limitations they place on themselves feel natural to them and those around them.
00:02:15.320Every social order requires maintenance, but when most people already feel naturally inclined towards the same standard, the degree of necessary intervention is low.
00:02:25.280When most people in the neighborhood share the same standard of home maintenance,
00:02:28.700a disapproving look from Mrs. Smith over your unmowed lawn will shame you into action.
00:02:34.580If the entire neighborhood expects to have peaceful, quiet nights, but you decide to have loud parties until 1 a.m.,
00:02:40.260you're going to stop getting invites to the neighborhood cookout or social event until that behavior gets corrected.
00:02:46.800No one needs to call the cops or appeal to a higher authority.
00:02:50.240The neighborhood polices itself through mutual expectations.
00:02:53.380There are several preconditions required to make this level of social coordination possible.
00:02:59.600Everyone needs to have similar expectations of behavior so violations are self-evident.
00:03:05.460If people in the neighborhood disagree wildly over acceptable lawn care, level of noise, and number of cars you can park on the lawn,
00:03:12.760it becomes difficult to navigate what should be acceptable and what shouldn't.
00:03:17.300People also need to feel comfortable approaching their neighbors to discuss these violations.
00:03:22.120Residents can't express their concerns if they're worried that the person in question will react disproportionately,
00:03:29.980violently, or will attempt to smear them personally for raising the issue.
00:03:35.040Finally, neighbors need to care enough about their social standing inside the community to take the correction of their fellow residents.
00:03:43.540If peer pressure isn't enough to correct bad behavior, then standards will decline.
00:03:48.820As New York City discovered, with policing, every broken window invites the next rock to be thrown.
00:03:55.840American government and culture have declared war on every one of the conditions that make high-trust societies possible for the last 60 years.
00:04:04.800Academics and media personalities have created a stigma around culturally homogenous neighborhoods,
00:04:11.000and the government has worked to make them all but illegal.
00:04:14.060Concerns about charges of racism, sexism, and homophobia keep neighbors from providing the subtle correction that helps to self-police behavior.
00:04:24.160The network of mothers that once watched over children at play in the streets is gone,
00:04:29.160as women now head into their corporate offices instead.
00:04:33.040As the work of Robert Putnam has shown,
00:04:34.960the more diverse a society becomes, the more social trust deteriorates.
00:04:39.960Residents retreat into their homes and watch television instead of joining the neighborhood watch or cookout.
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