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The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead David Callahan. Harcourt, 2004, 366 pp. ISBN 0-15-603005-5.
This study of cheating consists of nine chapters, whose titles range from Everybody Does It, and Temptation Nation to Cheating from the Starting Line, and Crime and No Punishment. According to the author, the increase in cheating "reflects deep anxiety and insecurity in America nowadays, desperation even, as well as arrogance among the rich and cynicism among ordinary people" (p. ix). The increase in cheating in the past decades is caused by pressure to get ahead, materialism, careerism, envy, and a permissive attitude and tolerance for cheating at various levels of society. Callahan sees economic capitalism as a root cause, and his remedies would include attempts toward economic equality, brought about, in part, by another tax on consumption ("progressive consumption tax": Apparently, such a consumption tax would be in addition to various state and local sales taxes that are already, in effect, taxes on consumption, p. 279). Other remedies would involve character education programs in schools, honor codes in colleges, and ethics courses in professional schools. In this regard, Callahan...