The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead First Edition, Kindle Edition

by David Callahan (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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A public policy expert reveals how decades of deregulation and increasing inequality have fostered a culture of cheating across America.

There have always been people who cut corners, but in The Cheating Culture, David Callahan demonstrates how cheating on every level—from the highly publicized corporate scandals to Little League fraud—has risen dramatically in recent decades. He then asks the simple yet provocative questions: Why all the cheating? Why now?

Callahan pins the blame on today’s dog-eat-dog economic climate. An unfettered market and unprecedented economic inequality have corroded our values and threaten the level playing field so central to American democracy itself. Through revealing interviews and extensive data analysis, Callahan takes readers on a revealing tour of cheating in America and offers a powerful argument for why it matters.

David Callahan
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Callahan compiles a meticulous mountain of data about our current state of disgrace."

Amazon.com Review

Cheating, argues author David Callahan, is no longer the exclusive purview of lowlife criminals, slick hucksters, and shady characters with ace cards shoved in secretive places. Now everyone's doing it and because everyone sees everyone else doing it, they keep on doing it. Callahan says the trouble begins in America's brutally competitive economic climate, which rewards results and looks the other way when it comes to the ethical and even criminal transgressions of those who come out on the winning end. Certainly there is no shortage of examples of cheating from the business community, and Callahan nimbly dissects the dishonest actions of the usual suspects (Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing) to demonstrate how that same mentality extends out to our educational system, amateur and professional sports, the news media, and even the lives of common citizens who, while they would never think of themselves as being cheaters, are nevertheless inclined to commit the occasional act of beneficial fudging. And while honesty is a nice ideal, Callahan says that cheaters cheat because, contrary to oft-repeated axioms, cheaters win: the chances of being caught are shrinking as are the punishments meted out should one be nabbed, and the benefits of a successful cheat far outstrip any potential threat. Further, Callahan posits that otherwise upright folks who would not cheat are drawn into the practice out of fear that they simply won't be able to make it in modern society otherwise. There's a lot of material for Callahan to work with here, given that every instance of cheating is fair game as source material and is able to be used to construct a theory of epidemic. And the range of material is so broad and the basic argument ("we cheat more") so simple that The Cheating Culture feels a bit like a Newsweek trend piece writ extremely large. Still, it must be noted that Callahan really had all that material to work with and that fact alone is compelling evidence that his premise is dead on. --John Moe --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–This is the kind of book that will have incredulous teens calling up their friends in order to read passages aloud. It's that scary. Callahan's premise is that, yes, there is a true moral crisis in this country, but it has nothing to do with so-called "family values"–and everything to do with the fact that more Americans are feeling the pressure to cheat to get ahead. From parents who bribe psychiatrists to diagnose their teens with phony mental disorders (buying the kids extra time for their SATs) to the Little League star pitcher who made it to the World Series before it was discovered that he was too old to be playing, the stories are amazing. Is there more cheating today than in years past? That's debatable, but Callahan makes a strong case that the 1980s, with their new emphasis on "leaner, meaner" companies and dog-eat-dog competition, created an atmosphere that makes cheating almost seem inevitable. One of the author's most important observations is that white-collar crime, often costing Americans billions of dollars, goes ridiculously unpunished while we lock up the poor for the most minor of drug offenses. People pat each other on the backs about successful tax evasion, which costs the government millions, but think a man who shoplifts a bottle of wine is deviant scum. Well-researched and very readable chapters on corruption in the sports world, in health care, on résumés, and elsewhere will give teens much to talk (and probably shout) about. A perfect choice for a book-discussion group.–Emily Lloyd, formerly at Rehoboth Beach Public Library, DE
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Newspapers have reported on many cases of corporate fraud at the highest executive levels in the past two years, but Callahan cites other instances of people going to often questionable lengths to succeed. It's estimated that half of all major league baseball players are taking steroids to enhance their strength and performance. Many attorneys regularly overstate their hours to stay competitive with their colleagues. To get into the right college, high schoolers will turn in papers written by tutors, while their parents shop for psychologists willing to diagnose a learning disability to gain extra time on the SAT. Callahan, director of public policy center Demos and frequent TV commentator, has a simple explanation for this proliferation of cheating. In a cutthroat economic climate, everybody wants to get ahead, and decades of deregulation have made it easy to bend the rules. He further argues that when the middle class sees wealthy cheaters get away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist, it inspires them to follow suit. A fairly obvious premise, to be sure, but the book's strength lies in tying together assorted detailed descriptions of cheating throughout the system and explaining the connections between disparate acts like r‚sum‚ inflation, tax evasion and illegal downloads. He offers straightforward, commonsensical solutions, including increased funding for federal enforcement agencies.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Everybody Does It"

I PLAYED A LOT OF MONOPOLY GROWING UP. LIKE MOST PLAYERS of the game, I loved drawing a yellow Community Chest card and discovering a "bank error" in my favor-"Collect $200!" It never occurred to me not to take the cash. After all, banks have plenty of money and if one makes an error in your favor, why argue?

I haven't played Monopoly in twenty years, but I'd still take the $200 today. And what if a real bank made an error in my favor? That would be a tougher dilemma.

Such things do happen.

Just to the east of where the Twin Towers once stood is a twenty-six-story office building that houses the Municipal Credit Union of New York City. The credit union has 300,000 members-federal, state, and city government employees-and over $1 billion in assets. Although a number of buildings near Ground Zero sustained serious damage when the towers came down, the MCU's glass-and-steel building on Cortlandt Street survived unscathed. However, the credit union did suffer a major computer failure that severed its link to the New York Cash Exchange (NYCE), the largest network of automatic teller machines in the Northeast.

The network managers at NYCE quickly detected the severed link. The problem meant that while credit union members could withdraw money at cash machines, NYCE couldn't immediately track these transactions or prevent members from overdrawing their accounts. NYCE leaders managed to get through to the credit union staff, even though the organization was in chaos. They posed the following choice: With just a few strokes on a computer keyboard, NYCE could cut off all cash withdrawals until the severed link was restored-which could take several weeks-or NYCE could let the cash keep flowing and sort out the withdrawal records later. Theoretically, anyone with a credit union ATM card could take out as much money as they wanted. The credit union would have to assume that risk. What did it want to do?

The Municipal Credit Union of New York is one of the oldest credit unions in America, founded more than eight decades ago. It is guided by an ethos of self-help and pooled aspirations. Many of its members are firemen and policemen and, in the wake of the attacks, it was widely assumed that some of these people had perished just across the street from the MCU's office. There was no way the credit union would prevent its members and their families from accessing their money at a time of crisis. Thomas Siciliano, the general counsel of the credit union, said later: "We felt it would have hurt them badly and added to the chaos of the city." The MCU trusted them to use their ATM cards responsibly.

Credit union members realized early on that their ATM use wasn't monitored and that there was no limit to how much cash they could take out. As word spread, withdrawals skyrocketed. As many as 4,000 members overdrew their accounts, some by as much as $10,000. One member used his card more than 150 times between late September and mid-October.

In November, the computer link with NYCE was finally restored. As the credit union got back to normal, it pieced together the full record of cash withdrawals after September 11. Those who had overdrawn their accounts had left a substantial electronic trail, and the MCU set about tracking them down. Siciliano led this work. He initially suspected that most of the members' overdrawing had occurred by accident, or maybe was prompted by emergency needs. The MCU assumed the best of its members, even those with average bank balances of less than $100 who had withdrawn thousands of dollars in just a few weeks. "We try to understand people," Siciliano says. "We're not just about the bottom line."

The MCU sent letters to those with overdrawn accounts listing the money that was missing and asking for repayment. While some money was repaid, many letters got no response. More letters were sent-notarized letters with threats. After months of appeals, $15 million was still missing. At that point, the MCU called in the authorities. A criminal investigation, led by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and the New York City Police Department, extended into the following summer. It resulted in scores of arrests.

A FEW BLOCKS AWAY from the credit union's offices, another investigation was reaching its climax in the spring of 2002, this one at Merrill Lynch's newly repaired global headquarters on Vesey Street. After September 11, Merrill Lynch had scattered 9,000 employees around back-office facilities in New Jersey and midtown. Months passed before it was able to move back downtown. When Merrill did return, morale at the company was low. Huge layoffs had depleted its ranks and profits were down in the new bear market. Worse, Merrill found itself cornered in a criminal probe led by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Before his assault on Wall Street made him famous, Spitzer was an obscure state official. Those who did know him were reminded of a character straight out of early-twentieth-century America. Wealthy by birth, with a father who bankrolled his political career, Spitzer is a muckraking crusader for the public interest.

Merrill Lynch had come to Spitzer's attention in a circuitous fashion. In early 2001, a Queens pediatrician named Debases Kanjilal hired a lawyer to pursue a civil suit against Merrill. Kanjilal was among the legions of investors who got burned when the NASDAQ cratered in 2000. Specifically, he had lost $500,000 on a single Internet stock, InfoSpace. Kanjilal's instinct had been to sell InfoSpace when it was trading at $60 a share. But his broker at Merrill Lynch had urged him to hold on to the stock, advice that reflected Merrill's public research reports that recommended InfoSpace as a "buy" stock. Standing behind those research reports, and affirming their recommendations in his TV appearances, was Merrill's star analyst and "Internet stock guru," Henry Blodget.

It is hard today to appreciate the influence once wielded by Blodget. Just over thirty years old in 2000, Blodget was a Yale grad who had never aspired to stardom on Wall Street. He had tried instead to make it as a writer, and when that didn't work out, his father rescued him from unemployment by helping him land a position at Prudential Securities. Blodget's career was unremarkable until he shot to fame in 1998 with his prediction that Amazon's stock would reach the unthinkable price of $400 a share. When the stock did, in fact, hit that level a month later, Blodget was hailed as an oracle. Shortly thereafter he moved to Merrill Lynch with a $3 million contract. There, he reigned as the single most visible adviser to investors hoping to score big in the Internet gold rush. Blond and affable, with telegenic good looks, Blodget was everywhere with his stock predictions as well as broader prognostications about the new economy.

What Blodget didn't mention to CNBC junkies or Merrill Lynch's own clients was that his role at Merrill went far beyond analyzing stocks. Like other star analysts of the time, he also became deeply involved in Merrill's investment banking business, helping to bring Internet companies-and fat underwriting fees-to Merrill. One of the companies Merrill's investment banking division represented was Go2Net, a company that InfoSpace was in the process of purchasing in 2000. Merrill had a financial interest in InfoSpace's stock price staying high so that the deal would go through.

Debases Kanjilal held on to his InfoSpace stock even as it declined steadily. Finally he sold at $11 a share and took a staggering loss. At the time Kanjilal sold, Merrill and Blodget were continuing to recommend InfoSpace to investors. Kanjilal's losses were part of an estimated $4 trillion that investors lost when NASDAQ crashed. Big-name analysts hyped many sinking tech stocks with the same enthusiasm they'd shown in pumping them up. For example, as of May 2001, Morgan Stanley's top Internet analyst, Mary Meeker, was still bestowing her once-coveted "outperform" rating on Priceline, then down from $162 to $4, and on Yahoo!, down from $237 to $19.50.

Kanjilal's lawsuit against Merrill Lynch attracted the attention of Eliot Spitzer's office not long after it was filed. Initiating a criminal investigation, Spitzer uncovered a shocking pattern of public deceit and conflict of interest at Merrill Lynch. He found e-mails by Henry Blodget privately ridiculing the same stocks that he and Merrill were publicly pushing. "A piece of junk," Blodget had called InfoSpace, even as he recommended it. He privately called other stocks a "pos," or piece of shit. Spitzer also found a memo in which Blodget detailed the compensation he deserved for bringing in investment banking business-a memo that flatly contradicted Merrill's claims that analysts were not rewarded for playing such a role. As a result of the investigation, Spitzer charged that Merrill Lynch's "supposedly independent and objective investment advice was tainted and biased by the desire to aid Merrill Lynch's investment banking business." In Spitzer's view, the behavior by Merrill and Blodget constituted securities fraud, a serious felony.1

Spitzer's evidence against Merrill Lynch resulted in the company agreeing to pay a $100 million settlement. This case turned out to be just the first step in a larger investigation of other top Wall Street firms that had engaged in a range of abuses by insiders, which culminated in a historic $1.4 billion settlement in 2003.

And what happened to Blodget? Not much. Saying he wanted a "lifestyle change," Blodget had accepted a November 2001 buyout offer from Merrill worth an estimated $5 million. He spent his days working on a book for Random House and meeting regularly with lawyers. In 2003, Blodget settled with Spitzer's office, agreeing to pay a $4 million penalty-yet admitting no wrongdoing. The settlement was easy enough to afford. Blodget had pulled in nearly $20 million during his brief star turn at Merrill.

HENRY BLODGET and the ATM looters have nothing in common and much in com... --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

David Callahan is cofounder and director of research at the public policy center Demos. The author of five books, he has also pub-lished articles in the New York Times and the Washington Post and is a frequent commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and NPR. He lives in New York City.
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Back Cover

Updated with a new afterword
Free cable television. Imaginary tax deductions. Movies and music downloadable on your home computer. Do you take your chance to cheat? David Callahan thinks many of us would: witness corporate scandals, doping athletes, plagiarizing journalists. Why all the cheating? Why now?
Callahan blames the dog-eat-dog climate of the past twenty years: An unfettered market and unprecedented economic inequality have corroded our values and threaten to corrupt the equal opportunity we cherish. Callahan's "Winning Class" has created a separate moral reality where it cheats without consequences -- while the "Anxious Class" believes choosing not to cheat could cancel its only shot at success in a winner-take-all world.
Analyzing the very latest scandals, "The Cheating Culture" takes us on a gripping tour of cheating in America and makes a powerful case for why it matters.
"Everything you ever wanted to know about what's gone wrong with ethics in our society is explained in David Callahan's remarkable and readable new book. For its meticulously researched, thoughtful and damning look at our broken moral compass, this should be required reading . . . This is one of those rare books that will make you mad, ashamed, and one may hope, determined to change."--"Philadelphia Inquirer"
David Callahan is cofounder of the public policy center Demos, where he is a senior fellow. He is the author of five previous books, and his articles have appeared in many publications, including the" New York Times, "the "Washington Post, "and "USA Today." He received a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University and lives in New York City. Look for more information about cheating on his Web site, www.cheatingculture.com.
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Booklist

In exploring the reasons for the surge in American cheating, Callahan took a broad approach, encompassing different professions, our government and legal system, the economy, popular culture, and people's values. He examined government reports and statistics, studies by social scientists, public opinion polls, and journalistic investigations of scandals and cheating. Callahan also conducted interviews with people who deal with the cheating culture: parents, students, teachers, coaches, athletes, experts in business ethics, stock analysts, lawyers, accountants, doctors, and law enforcement officials. His findings? An increase in cheating reflects deep anxiety and insecurity in America, including arrogance among the rich and cynicism among ordinary people. In a final chapter of this meticulously researched book, Callahan suggests three ways to address this growing problem: forge a new social contract, reform key professions and instill new codes of conduct in the workplace, and strengthen the ethics of new generations of Americans. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B003KK5DRC
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books; First edition (February 1, 2007)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 1, 2007
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1092 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 373 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

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About the author

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David Callahan

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DAVID CALLAHAN is founder and editor of Inside Philanthropy, a digital media site that covers the world of giving by wealthy donors and foundations. He has interviewed and written about many of the top philanthropists of our time, and his new book is THE GIVERS: WEALTH, POWER, AND PHILANTHROPY IN A NEW GILDED AGE.

Callahan is also author of seven nonfiction books including FORTUNES OF CHANGE: THE RISE OF THE LIBERAL RICH AND THE REMAKING OF AMERICA, and THE CHEATING CULTURE: WHY MORE AMERICANS ARE DOING WRONG TO GET AHEAD. Previously, Callahan was a Senior Fellow at Demos, a national think tank he co-founded in 2000, as well as a Resident Scholar at the Century Foundation. His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post, and he is a frequent media commentator. Callahan is a graduate of Hampshire College and holds a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University.

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N. S.

Richie's Picks: THE CHEATING CULTURE

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2004

Verified Purchase

"Lately, conservatives haven't had much to complain about. Many aspects of Americans' personal behavior have changed in recent years. Crime is down. Teenage pregnancy is down. Drunk driving is down. Abortion is down. Opinion surveys suggest that Americans are growing more concerned about personal responsibility, as conservatives have narrowly defined that term. And much of the supposed 'deviance' that conservatives have anguished about for a quarter century has been waning.
"Still, cheating is up. Cheating is everywhere. By cheating I mean breaking the rules to get ahead academically, professionally, or financially. Some of this cheating involves violating the law, some does not. Either way, most of it is by people who, on the whole, view themselves as upstanding members of society. Again and again, Americans who wouldn't so much as shoplift a pack of chewing gum are committing felonies at tax time, betraying the trust of their patients, misleading investors, ripping off their insurance company, lying to their clients, and much more.
"Something strange is going on here. Americans seem to be using two moral compasses. One directs our behavior when it comes to things like sex, family, drugs, and traditional forms of crime. A second provides us ethical guidance in the realm of career, money, and success.
"The obvious question is: Where did we pick up that second compass?"
So asks David Callahan in this fascinating look at where we are headed in America. Led by doped-up sports icons, doctors with bogus prescriptions, auto repair guys who find more to fix then is really wrong, corrupt stockbrokers, and ready-to-buy politicians, the leaders of the parade are the corporate executives.
Of course, the amoral behavior by corporate executives is dictated by stockholders who, of course, are us and our parents and friends and our retirement portfolio managers.
So where are we all going?
"Cheating is not a new problem in the United States or anywhere else. It has existed in nearly every human society.
"In Ancient Greece, the Olympic games were rife with cheating. Athletes lied about their amateur status, competitions were rigged, judges were bribed. Those caught were forced to pay fines to a special fund used to set up statues of Zeus. Greece ended up with a lot of statues of Zeus."
There are a set of interrelated influences that the author believes are the cause of the current cheating epidemic in America--the increased pressures of job competition and insecurity, the widening rewards gap between the winners and losers in our economic system, the relentless trend toward deregulation that enhances temptation, and the belief by so many people that the system is so utterly corrupt that they have no fair shot at attaining the American Dream in an ethical manner.
THE CHEATING CULTURE is an eye-opening introduction to the real world. It will enlighten high school students as to how their peers are adroitly eluding obstacles that might interfere with becoming rich, famous, powerful, and going to Disneyland. The only worry is deciding which is more effective: buying term papers online or paying tutors to write them for you; purchasing the proper mobile electronics to be able to secretly bring your answers into the classroom or having your parents line up a doctor who can sell you the learning disability diagnosis that will permit you more time to complete standardized tests.
"The choice between being a winner or a loser in an economy filled with inequities seems stark and frightening to many college students. Says one student: 'Grades are the most important things which judge whether you go to medical school or to work as a janitor.' "
It is not surprising that Callahan finds these same students go on to cheat in college, grad school and--for those who thus successfully navigate their way to and through the sidewalks of the Ivy League--in a business world where untold riches can be scooped up at the expense of a gullible public that is unprotected by a deregulated, corporate-lobbied government.

26 people found this helpful

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Lee Chambliss

Another required book

Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2021

Verified Purchase

Good grief, so many required reading books for a 1hr credit class!

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what it worth

love it

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2020

Verified Purchase

it was simple and gave me the answers I was looking for

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Michael M

The author makes a more-or-less accurate description about modern American ...

Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2016

Verified Purchase

The author makes a more-or-less accurate description about modern American society.
He has also clearly done his homework.
My only concern is that the book gets a little dreary and repetitive in its assessment at times.
Perhaps add a little more humor/color to a truly serious topic?

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William

Too repetitive

Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2019

Verified Purchase

Easy read, but the author revisits the same few subjects over and over. It gets tiresome rather quickly.

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Paula Clarke

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2018

Verified Purchase

Arrived on time and as described. Thank you.

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Pawel Rzeczkowski

How we got to this great financial crisis of 2008

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2011

Verified Purchase

After graduating in NYC with my MBA in 2008 right into the recession I have attended too many talks by Nobel price laureates discussing the recession from every angle possible and recounting all the details how it happened. This book however brilliantly captures the spirit of how we got to this crisis! What is amazing this book was written after the .com bust but it is remarkably apt description of the forces that led us to 2008! This is a must read to understand what has happened and to understand the full human cost of free market economy.

3 people found this helpful

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Rebecca Cullen

Wow, incredibly relevant book to read right now.

Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2019

Verified Purchase

Callahan's book is so well written--it builds upon his chronicling a top-down influence in our country where cheating has become pervasive on every level. A friend recommended it after the news of the college cheating scandal and I found it a very compelling read.

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Top reviews from other countries

Bobby Elliott

Interesting and uplifting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 28, 2004

Verified Purchase

I purchased this book for research. But the book covers a lot more than academic cheating. In fact, the majority of the book is about corporate cheating.
I found the book very interesting. Although it was short on hard evidence (I guess cheating is a subject that is hard to research since few people admit to it), the author provides plenty of examples of corporate, social and academic wrong-doing. He debunks a few myths - such as academic cheating being a preserve of "weak" students (it's done by every type of student - includng the "best") and he highlights the tolerance to cheating within academia.
But it's the analysis of why people cheat that is fascinating. The author argues that America has become a "cheating culture" because of the pressures on people to succeed -- and the growing gap between "winners" and "losers". This pressure is evident at all levels and all stages - and starts in American schools. He also exposes double standards - cheating (for example, in the form of tax evasion) is tolerated (almost encouraged) but petty crime is heavily punished.
The book well written, easy to read and never sanctimonious. It concludes with an interesting and positive chapter on what we can do to change things.

4 people found this helpful

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