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Title: The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead by David Callahan ISBN: 0-15-101018-8 Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 26 January, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.67 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Insightful look at contemporary economic life
Comment: Callahan's book deserves attention because we need to begin looking at the broader questions of "why a lot of things aren't working." Too often government and social agencies opt for a quick fix, such as longer prison sentences or denial of benefits, rather than examining the underlying question: "Why did this happen in the first place?"
Callahan neither points nor shakes fingers. He does not condone cheating but explores social influences that encourage and reward cheating. Most important, he shows how lines have blurred between cheater and victim. Many people cheat on auto insurance, he says, but in fact these poorly-regulated insurance companies turn their customers into victims.
And the institutions we're taught to trust, such as the medical system, cheat us too. Doctors who join multi-level marketing programs not only prescribe unnecessary products but also try to recruit their patients into a money-making scheme!
Callahan focuses on economic pressures that drive ordinary people to cheat, especially "Winner Takes All." If losing means losing everything, there's enormous incentive to do whatever it takes to win.
If anything, Callahan doesn't go far enough. He notes that parents hire "coaches" to help children get into colleges and "tutors" who sometimes do the work for the children.
But here's the irony. Many coaches, tutoring services and ghost writers earn more than teachers. Well-paid teachers with a reasonable workload might make their services unnecessary.
At one writing conference, a young man openly told a whole table of horrified listeners, "I earn a lot more ghostwriting term papers at the University of X than when I was an adjunct professor at the same university."
Then again, has any culture or civilization ever truly rewarded integrity? During World War II, the US government advertised buying bonds as an act of patriotism -- but some economists say the real motive was to tame the fires of inflation. Before the days of informed consent, who knows how many unnecessary medical procedures were performed? We may not be cheating more than any previous culture -- it's just harder to hide and we're more willing to point self-righteous fingers at those who are caught.
Like Callahan, I don't condone cheating, but I find myself frustrated with a system that punishes individuals who get caught while rewarding those who create situations that put those same individuals between a rock and a hard place.
Rating: 5
Summary: "Everybody's doing it."
Comment: David Callahan's new book, "The Cheating Culture," is a timely look at why and how so many Americans engage in morally ambiguous behavior in order to succeed in school, sports, and business. Some people cheat to make money; others do it to make themselves look more accomplished than they really are. Callahan explores not only why people cheat, but also how American institutions encourage cheating, and what we, as a society, should do to reverse this growing and alarming trend.
Callahan fills his book with a host of examples, including lawyers who overcharge their clients, doctors who are paid by pharmaceutical companies to prescribe inappropriate drugs, students who cheat on their SAT's, athletes who take performance-enhancing drugs, and corporate bigwigs who engage in financial chicanery. He also cites examples of famous cheaters, such as Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky, who were convicted and served jail time for their financial crimes, and Kenneth Lay, the top man at Enron, who has still not been prosecuted for his role in a huge scandal that rocked the business world.
"The Cheating Culture" is a thorough and very readable account of a serious problem in our society that receives far too little attention. The many anecdotes and interviews in this book bring home the pervasiveness and even the institutionalization of cheating in our country.
I give particularly high marks to the final chapter of "The Cheating Culture," in which Callahan offers his ideas for attacking the problem head on. The author suggests that we attempt to rediscover and reinforce the principles of honesty, teamwork, and shared responsibility in our homes, schools, and businesses. Callahan believes that children should be taught ethical behavior in school and parents should be careful to set a proper example for their children. He also suggests that the federal government take its role as a watchdog more seriously, policing and punishing those who evade taxes, engage in creative accounting, and steal from their shareholders. Before we tackle a problem, we have to recognize that it exists. David Callahan's excellent book is a step in the right direction.
Rating: 1
Summary: Not at all on the subject
Comment: The author doesn't demonstrate enough examples of cheating. Rather he's on a tear against making money, the stock market, executive salaries, golf clubs, gated communities, expensive cars, etc.
I had hoped for a book that would really look at cheating in America -- from high school test taking to online piracy to corporate scandals.
Instead this book is filled with hidden agenda Socialism.
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Title: What Price the Moral High Ground? : Ethical Dilemmas in Competitive Environments by Robert H. Frank ISBN: 0691006725 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 02 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: The Working Poor : Invisible in America by DAVID K. SHIPLER ISBN: 0375408908 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 03 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else by David Cay Johnston ISBN: 1591840198 Publisher: Portfolio Pub. Date: 25 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy by William Greider ISBN: 0684862190 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: The Progress Paradox : How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse by GREGG EASTERBROOK ISBN: 0679463038 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 25 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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