David Callahan sees several reasons. One is that in the Winner-Take-All Society (brilliantly described by Robert Frank in his book of the same name), the rewards are huge. Another is that the risks are small -- even when people are caught cheating, there is little repurcussion. And in a society where so many are cheating, we are at a disadvantage if we don't cheat, too.
Most of the book is taken up with describing the (often fascinating) ways people cheat and what are the consequences, to the individual and to the community. When Callahan finally comes to what to do about this pervasive problem, he can only come up with rather mild suggestions. Parents should teach their children to do right, schools and businesses should conduct courses in ethics, the individual should "be a chump" and resist cheating and turn in anyone who does cheat.
This reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine threatens a cheating Jerry by saying "Someday, something bad is gonna happen to you!" and Jerry shrugs her off with "No, I'm gonna be fine."
In a perfect world, things would even out, and cheaters would get their due. In the real world, Kenneth Lay gets to keep his mansion and may never go to jail.
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.