Trustworthiness is about keeping your promises, not obeying the law. Elsewhere you write about ethics as reciprocal, but now you view the good tax payer as one who pays all the government asks in tax? Precisely what's missing from your account here is reciprocity.
The point is not that in a low-trust society, everyone should suddenly act with high-trustworthiness. It is an equilibrium for a reason. Rather, that there are avenues and interstices where a reputation for high-trustworthiness is now extremely valuable. Start a bank, or a law firm. If the bureaucrats are all taking bribes, then negotiate a discount on a bulk rate and sell it. And so on.
Fine, but if you are being reciprocal, you can kiss social improvement goodby. Suppose you are a teacher underpaid, kicked by all, and underrespected, it is reciprocal for you to give very few shits about teaching well, but then you can kiss the whole idea to improve education by learning from Finland goodby. Predictably, it can only get worse, not better.
Bootstrapping by fake trust I mean you tell the teacher to do a good work and I promise the parents will respect you and tell the parents respect the teacher and I will promise they will do a good job an...
I decided to link to this article, because this seems to be all about what Less Wrong is about: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/10/better-time. Out of interest, does anyone know of a good resource for learning more about the training techniques used in elite athletics?