Our Wicked Cheating Hearts (standard:Editorials, 1852 words)
Author: J P St. Jullian	Added: Feb 25 2003	Views/Reads: 3759/2396	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Is mutual cheating the foundation of our social future?

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Armed Forces veterans who served their country in peace time and war,
then retired with service connected ailments and diseases for which the 
Veterans Administration (VA) awarded them between 10 and 70 percent 
disability are forced to fund their own disability payments from 
retirement pay instead of being paid full retirement as well as 
separate disability benefits.  It works like this:  if the retiree is 
awarded a 60% disability rating, a percentage of his or her retirement 
pay is taken over by VA.  VA then issues the recipient his or her own 
money which is now tax free.  That's it.  It makes no sense.  You're 
getting your own money back, just from a different agency whose only 
function is to make that portion of  the funds tax free! The rest you 
receive from the service you retired from. 

What's the deal here?  When these perpetrators are called upon the
carpet to answer for their actions they swear they've always played by 
the rules, then they subsequently get caught stealing from the cookie 
jar.  What is motivating all this wrongdoing, cheating, thievery and 
chicanery?  Is it selfishness? Yes!  Is it greed and competition? Most 
definitely!  Or maybe all three plus the pressure to succeed? Fear of 
failure? What? 

It seems that people want to "win at all costs" and no rule is too
sacred to break in the process.  It's a bad ethic to have.  It's not 
limited to the big boys on Wall Street or in Corporate Society and 
politics.  It's like a cancer that spreads rapidly to all parts of the 
body.  It starts in corporate society and government then spreads out 
into our other institutions,  influencing our youth in high school and 
college to do the same thing on a smaller scale.  After all, this is 
the world they are being groomed to inherit, isn't it?  Shouldn't they 
start learning the truth of how it's done early? 

In 2001 a full seventy-four percent of high school students admitted to
some serious cheating on tests.  In 1969 when I was in high school the 
number of students who admitted to cheating was less than thirty 
percent.  Imagine, in just 31 years the number has actually more than 
doubled. 

In any case American society has spawned another sub-culture; that of
cheating.  Critics tell us that the foundation of this cheating culture 
is that "win at all costs" ethic, but I can't buy into that as a 
complete explanation.  I think in addition to the need to “win at all 
costs” there is some kind of inborn tendency to "beat the system" at 
work here, especially if the "system" is perceived to be rigged or 
unfair in some way. It doesn't matter if it's a speed limit, the stock 
market or the tax code, we seem hard wired to cheat it.  Especially the 
tax code.  One's personal system of morality comes into play. 

Case in point: 

In New Mexico alone in the month of January 2003, 100 people were
prosecuted for stealing satellite television service.  Many others are 
doing the same thing, including those stealing cable TV service, but 
haven't been caught yet.  When asked why they did it, most said, 
"Because the prices they charge are a rip-off." Also, "We fudge 
insurance claims because the rates are sky high."  "We pocket a few 
office supplies now and then because the company can afford it."  When 
all this is analyzed, it would seem that people cheat to restore 
fairness, if their answers can be trusted.  The same rules do not apply 
to government. 

When corporate giants like Enron and Martha Stewart are implicated in
any degree of malfeasance, Congress demands that lawmakers do something 
to “protect the American people.”  Teams of lawyers and their firms go 
into a feeding frenzy. Yet, when fraud is uncovered in Social 
Security's DDS, with mountains of evidence proving the agency's guilt, 
Congress simply yawns. They yawn because Social Security has been and 
still is a golden cash cow which they don't want to disturb in any way. 
 Guess what. You, me, and millions of other adults are the cash cows. 
While we were working hard and long, paying in our FICA taxes, little 
did many of us know that our money was being used to finance all of the 
lame-brained subsidy programs Congress came up with. It's still 
happening! Does the majority of taxpayers know this? 

When you get the real inside story it becomes a marvel at what our
society will allow.  Does our justice system even care about the 
injustice of unfair, unjust corporate behavior and governmental snafus? 
 Is there a shift in cultural standards that says cheating is good?  
Has cheating and deceit become accepted “tools of the trade” in the 
quest for individual or corporate success? 

Whatever the case may be here, it also has a paradox.  You see, as great
as our urge to cheat is, we also harbor an almost hard-wired hatred or 
dislike for people who cheat.  Therein lies the paradox.  We believe 
that “those cheaters” make it hard on the rest of us and we want them 
caught and punished!  I've seen business owners spend more money on 
punishing cheaters, thieves and scapegoats than was lost because of 
them.  Then these same business owners will go on to the end of the 
year, and cheat the IRS out of as much money as they can find loopholes 
for!  We all do it, or have done it at some point. 

HAS AMERICA BECOME A NATION OF CHEATERS?  AT OUR CURRENT RATE OF SOCIAL
DECLINE, ARE WE STILL ABLE TO BILL OURSELVES AS THE GREATEST NATION ON 
EARTH, OR ARE WE SO GREAT SIMPLY BECAUSE OF OUR MILITARY MIGHT AND OUR 
POSITION AS A WORLD POWER?  WHAT TRULY MAKES A NATION GREAT?  HOW AND 
BY WHOM IS THAT GREATNESS JUDGED? 

These are valid questions, I think, considering the true state of our
society.  What drives people to swindling their way through life?  Is 
cheating on such a large scale ever an acceptable option, for any 
reason?  What are the solutions?  Will our legislators protect us from 
a future of rampant corporate cheating and injustice? 

I fear that the only thing capable of waking our dozing legislators is a
significant number of complaints from constituents nationwide, positive 
political action (vote them out of office), and the power of the media. 
That might get things back on track for a couple of decades at least.  
Here again is an excellent opportunity for the media to serve the 
people; a service that it seldom chooses to give, at least not in any 
great measure. 

Well, I've vented.  There is so much more that needs to be addressed. 
After all these years, I finally do truly understand the full 
implications of the statement coined long ago that reads, “I have seen 
the enemy, and he is us.” 


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