The Cheating Culture Why American Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead 2004 David Callahan Harcourt The Cheating Culture Cheating is increasing in American society NY Municipal Credit Union 911 ID: 237497
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Slide1
The Cheating Culture
The Cheating Culture: Why American Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead. (2004).
David Callahan. Harcourt.Slide2
The Cheating Culture
Cheating is increasing in American society.
NY Municipal Credit Union 9/11
Henry
Blodget
Enron
World Com
Wall Street
Big Banks
SAT testsSlide3
Diagnosis shopping
Doctors
Lawyers overbilling
CEO’s fake resumes
Steroids in sports
Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass (“Shattered Glass”) in Journalism
82% of corporate executives admitted to cheating on gold course
Crime down, violence down, drunk driving down. Cheating up?Slide4
Cheating is breaking the rules to get ahead academically, professionally, or financially.
Some cheating violates the law – often by outstanding members of society who wouldn’t shoplift a pack of chewing gum. But at tax time cheat, or betray trust of clients or patients, or rip off insurance companies or the government.
Americans tend to use two moral compasses:
One that directs behavior on sex, family, drugs and traditional forms of crime.
Another that provides ethical guidance in careers, money, and success.Slide5
Where did Americans pick up second compass?
Jeffersonian suspicion of central power nurtured seeking personal liberty and individualism.
During Industrial Revolution Americans embraced the rawest form of industrial capitalism in the world.
1920s notorious for cheating, and
inequality
was at its height – not until 2007 was it that high again.
Social responsibility movement lost traction in 1970s and 1980s.Slide6
1981 Reagan: “Government is not the solution; government is the problem.”
Deregulation
Making money was in, government activism was out.
“The market as the dominant cultural force had so infiltrated society that it is increasingly difficult to remember any other reality.”
The laissez-faire revolution – focusing on the bottom line and shareholder value.Slide7
Economic inequalities led to striking changes in our society.
Winner-take –all
High inequality = more divisions in society, undermining the “we’re all in it together” mentality and being bound by the same rules.
Inequality reshaped politics as wealthy elites were able to break the rules. Money = influence.
The government’s ability to act as a referee was hobbled.Slide8
Market values held sway. Social Darwinism thinking dominated.
Cheating increased.
What led to more cheating?
New pressures for profit
Bigger rewards for winning
Temptation
Trickle-down corruption
When middle-class people stop believing the rules are fair, they change their behavior.
Hard to stop when “everybody does it.”Slide9
Cheating in the bottom-line economy:
Money is valued more than service to clients, customers, or community.
Wall Street – outright greed.
Lawyers overbilling hourly
Whatever-It-Takes morals
Led by skyrocketing CEO pay
Tax policies that favor the rich
Barry Bonds in sports
Jason Blair, Jonah Lehrer in journalismSlide10
It’s a question of character.
The “do your own thing” of the 1960s led to the laissez-faire revolution of the 1980s and 1990s.
Stressed individual liberty and choice.
Ayn
Rand’s philosophy of extreme libertarianism – unfettered markets and personal freedom
1980s juggernaut of yuppies and materialism
Financial goals pushed aside other aspirations – belief that more money makes you happier.
Rise of Social Darwinism – survival of the fittest means some people naturally suited to rule.
Made moral judgments on people’s level of economic success. Slide11
The everybody-loves-a-winner mentality has troubling implications for our society’s ethics.
Cut slack for those who are successful; love them whatever their sins.
The sacrosanct goal of wealth virtually consecrates the means – any means.
Jay Gatsby
Ken LaySlide12
However, Max Weber argued that people are more likely to follow rules or laws that seem fair and are made by an authority that deserves its power.Slide13
Cheating from the starting line:
Cheating at schools to get into selective colleges rampant.
Difference between Harvard and Rutgers worth millions.
Cheating one way not to be left behind.
Stakes are too big.
Crime and no punishment.
United States more punitive than any other advanced democratic society – death penalty.
Uniquely tough on poor and unemployed and on drug offenders.Slide14
“Strict-father” morality jibes easily with laissez-faire mentality and libertarianism.
Wealthy American coddled.
Most academic cheating goes unpunished.
Athletes and other admired people easily forgiven.Slide15
Cheating thrives where unfairness reigns along with economic anxiety.
And where government is the weak captive of the wealthy.
New social contract with new rules is needed:
Everyone who plays by the rules
can
get ahead.
Everyone who breaks the rules suffers the same penalties.
All off us are in the same boat, living in the same moral community.Slide16
We need a different bottom line.
Media ethics
Business ethicsSlide17
Happiest and Most Hated JobsSlide18
10 Happiest Jobs
*
Clergy
Firefighters
Physical Therapists
Authors
Special Education teachers
Teachers
Artists
Psychologists
Financial Services
S
ales
A
gents
Operating Engineers
* National Organization for Research, University of Chicago Slide19
Meaning, not moneySlide20
10 Most Hated Jobs
*
Director of Information Technology
Director of Sales and Marketing
Product Manager
Senior Web Developer
Technical Specialist
Electronics Technician
Law Clerk
Technical Support
A
nalyst
CNC Machinist
Marketing Manager
CareerBliss.comSlide21
Money, not meaning