The main trust problem is lacking ongoing relationships, not dealing with cheaters

Evidence

For trust as encapsulated interest, trust relationships have a naturally disciplining quality. If you prove not to be trustworthy, I stop dealing with you if possible. Often, however, we cannot simply refuse to deal with those who are untrustworthy unless we are willing to forgo important opportunities for mutual benefit that would be possible if only we could secure the cooperation of many who are seemingly untrustworthy. The biggest and most pervasive problem for us in trusting others is not the malign problem of dealing with cheaters but the relatively neutral problem of often having to deal with people with whom we cannot expect to have ongoing relationships in which to ground incentives for trustworthiness. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 788

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the Saramago integration: blindness destroys the ongoing-relationship continuity needed to ground trust incentives, converting Hardin’s ‘neutral’ problem into a Hobbesian one.
• QUESTION: Does Saramago’s epidemic work by converting the relatively benign ‘no ongoing relationship’ problem into the malign cheater problem, collapsing Hardin’s categories?