In Bonn, Germany, I noticed a bookcase full of books in the public park where I run, with a young woman removing one book and returning another. These are used books that make up essentially a free voluntary lending library.
Would this cabinet last undamaged in a U.S. city one day? I doubt it. Similar things exist elsewhere — such as outdoor vending machines for DVD’s in Kyoto, Japan. Both of these indicate a certain level of mutual trust in the population and a certain level of civility; both reduce the transactions costs of daily living: easier access to books in one case, 24-hour DVD availability in the other.
Mutual trust is important in reducing transactions costs, and this aspect of culture has been viewed by economists as helping to determine some economic outcomes. (Although how different levels of trust arise has not been considered by the mostly macroeconomists who worry about this; it’s creating trust that seems to me to be the central issue.)
How many other examples like the books and the DVD’s are there in foreign countries that we don’t see at home?
and 
. You can also watch it on 
Your cynism about the US is misplaced. There is an identical service in Bryant Park in NYC, where you are encouraged to freely read the books and to enjoy the park.
Redbox provides 24 hour DVD availability from many of its 8,000 or so US vending machines:
http://www.redbox.com/home.aspx
In my smallish hometown of Berkhamsted in the UK, there is an “honesty” second-hand book-store. You fill the shelves with books you no longer need, and drop coins into a box for books you want to take away. No staff, and it’s raised 1000s of pounds for charity over the last ten years, for the cost of a few spare shelves at the back of the town hall.
Outdoor DVD vending machines are starting to become fairly prevalent, at least in Texas. Redbox has machines located outside of McDonald’s and Walgreens locations.
The only interesting aspect of this post is your prejudice. What is the source of this bias?
While traveling recently in a remote portion of Madison, Wisconsin, thousands of feet from my American home, I encountered a book/antique store that leaves a selection of used books for sale at $1 each on an outdoor table, even when the store is closed, inviting buyers to put the money in the mail slot. The trust shown by these strange people astounds me.
This sort of thing could and does happen in nyc. I’d like to think it could happen elsewhere in the states, although I think it requires a pedestrian culture that only New York really has.
Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood has a “Free Books” box and a “Free Movies” box made out of repainted old newspaper boxes. Community residents leave their unwanted media and people that want to find something to read dig through and take what they want. I have left about a dozen books, and claimed one Rolling Stones record for myself.