In the past, a person’s word was sufficient to form a binding contract. Nowadays one’s word is meaningless and even if you get something in writing, people can claim they didn’t understand what they were agreeing to or that they were temporarily insane when they signed it. Litigation pervades business transactions and people constantly search for loopholes in order to subvert the intention of a law to satisfy their own interests. With all the efforts to get away with as much as possible with a seeming disregard for any sort of value system, one wonders what happened to our ethics. Why does our word no longer have any clout in formal agreements? It’s hard to know what happened, but as individuals, we can act in such a way that others will be able to trust what we tell them. It will take time and consistent behavior, but in the end, it’s a much better way to live.