Rating: 
Summary: Some Eye-Opening Reasons Why Cheating is Rampant
Review: All Right, I may be naive, but I really didn't realize why tax cheating and corporate scandals are so rampant. Basically, Callahan statistically lays out how the chances of getting caught have never been slimmer.
For instance, there are around 17,000 publicly traded companies and even more mutual funds, brokerage houses, etc. Well, Callahan states that the SEC can only review the financial statements of about 6 percent of those. Also, the IRS has been gutted to such an extent that your chance of being caught cheating at your taxes approaches the chances of being struck by lightning...twice.
In other words, the rewards are great, the chances of being caught are slim, the punishment is light, and (this is the big thesis of the book,) the culture accepts the ability to get away with cheating as a marker of success.
I think your reaction to Callahan's arguments will be dictated by your politics and your worldview; a lot of his conclusions end in the growing gap between the rich and the poor.
One of the best things about his book is that it will teach you that if you are lying to your insurance company about where your car is registered, you shouldn't be making fun of Winona Ryder for her shoplifting.
The Cheating Culture doesn't come to any simple, easy solutions, but I don't know that there are any. The book is a relatively quick read.
Rating: 
Summary: Insightful look at contemporary economic life
Review: 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: 
Summary: Society is to blame
Review: David Callahan uses his book, "The Cheating Culture," as his way to criticize the American culture. Callahan says that in our society, cheating is prevalent in all different economic classes; it is not just lowlife and poverty stricken criminals as is the thought of most Americans. Today, according to Callahan, individuals in higher classes are more apt to cheating than the lower classes, and he blames this on the modern economy and the influence the American society puts on making money. He also attacks individual professions and parents for putting too much pressure on their children. Callahan uses numerous examples (that are sadly available in our culture) from major corporate scandals to cheating on homework in high school to make his point.
Everyone knows about the Enron and WorldCom scandals that occurred over the past few years. Callahan answers the question as to why already successful, rich companies will commit fraud and lie to stockholders to make even more money for themselves. Basically, in American society today, everyone is looking for the edge to make even more money than everyone else. Callahan attributes this to the growing gap between the upper and lower classes, and the society itself for being a country that is just looking to make money. I, along with many other Americans, can probably see that this is in fact happening in our country. There is nothing being done to try and lessen the gap between the rich and the poor. I also see why companies would want to cheat to make more money; it's easy to get away with! The IRS and SEC are understaffed and have been cut back in recent years, making it impossible to investigate every financial statement and all of the tax fraud. Callahan brings out many different numbers and statistics that show just how many people a year get away with tax evasion. People say, "Hey, if I'm not going to get caught, why not do it?"
Callahan also talks about how people who wouldn't shoplift from a store, would lie on their taxes. People in the country do not see the correlation between the two because they feel that if they can get away with tax evasion, it is benefiting them and they deserve that. Shoplifting, on the other hand, they feel is very wrong. The same goes with cheating in high school. Callahan blames society for making students think that they need to get into a great school, and it doesn't matter how you do it. He also believes that students will cheat because they feel pressure from their parents to get good grades. They figure it is okay to cheat since everyone else is doing it, and all that matters is the letter grade anyways. I have seen this myself through my high school experience, and no one really looked down upon cheaters, they were just seen as people who knew how to play the game.
While I agree with Callahan on all of those points, he also makes some statements and comments that seem to go overboard. Throughout much of the book, he bashes the capitalist system saying that it creates too much of a class gap, while basically praising socialism. While I do believe there are some flaws in the capitalist system, socialism is not the way to go. He also bashes individual professions and students at certain colleges. Callahan spends much of an entire chapter discussing how there are too many crooked accountants, which is why there are so many companies cheating. I do not believe that you can just blame the accounting profession for whole companies committing fraud and different scandals. There are many decisions and approvals that budgets and write-offs must go through, and it is not just the accountants. Upper level management would also be the ones to blame in those situations. As far as cheating students go, Callahan makes the claim that most business students who cheat in college will also cheat in the working world. How do you come up with that information? This is obviously just a statement he makes with no solid information to back it up. It is impossible to know whether someone who cheats in college is also cheating in the workplace. That is an instance of just one of the claims Callahan makes that doesn't seem to make sense.
Overall, however, it is a very well-written book with many well-thought, provocative points in it. I felt that it was easy to read because you develop so many opinions as you go through. It will make you think about your own morals and what you would do in the situations some of these people were placed in. Callahan also offers no real solutions to the cheating problem, so it leaves us to think about what we should do to make a change. I would recommend this book for anyone to read, and more importantly, to discuss with others.
Rating: 
Summary: more of a social rant against free market capitalism
Review: I had been looking forward to reading this book for almost a year since its author was on a tv show. Finally, I got around to it and have to admit I was very disappointed. Callahan spends 75% of the book saying that the main reason for so much cheating in society is because of free market capitalism. Acceptable reasoning I suppose for people like Gary Winnick, Ken Lay, Jeffery Skilling et al...but is this really the core reason why high school students or college students copy a paper off the internet and hand it in as their own??? Not from my experience as a college student/high school teacher. They do it because they're lazy and its so easy to spend 5 minutes finding a paper than to spend 4+ hours to get the same grade (or better). Only about 25% of the book deals with actual cheating and the different professions it is common in (academia, law, medicine, etc..), while the other 75% is him complaining/trying to suggest how to curb the free market to eliminate cheating. He does have some valid points such as 1) the SEC and IRS both need much better funding and staff to pursue unethical corporations and individuals and 2) there needs to be much more attention paid to cheating in all levels of academia especially with regards to punishments and the apathy displayed by many teachers/professors. He tries to lay out a theory that the people at the bottom end of the spectrum are cheating because they see that they can't do any better with hard work and effort and they can't make ends meet as it is. Yet he only talks about 1 or 2 examples of this. 95% of the cheating situations described in detail are affluent kids/adults such as the lawyers, doctors, corporate executives, sports stars (albeit briefly), and high school kids at the best prep schools (public and private). In my opinion, the free market is not a bad idea it just needs to have stronger regulating laws and groups. Maybe this is exactly his view, but I can't quite tell because he spends so much time railing against the decades of Greed (1980-2000) it's hard to tell. Also, he at one point mentions that suburban sprawl (and that fact that people live further apart instead of right next to each other in neighborhoods) is one small thing that somehow contributes to cheating. I still haven't figured this connection out (living right next door makes us more friendly to our neighbors which makes us better people and cheat less?) but maybe you can. I should have known what was in it when I saw Robert Reich had a quote praising it on the back.
Rating:
Summary: was expecting something different
Review: I was expecting more on ethics and less blatant political rambling. A better title for this book might be "Capitalism is Evil".
However, the parts of the book that weren't spent advocating socialism did have some good information and theories. So, 2 or 2.5 stars for those parts.
Rating:
Summary: the standardization of cheating
Review: I would have given this book 4 and a half if I could grade it that way; in truth, what bothered me about Callahan's book was a thin ending, a list of suggestions that sound good on paper but in reality cannot keep pace with a cheating pattern that's flying madly out of control. That being said, the book is outstanding otherwise, listing blatant examples of a society where the only crime is getting caught, where keeping pace is every man's excuse. Whether it be lying or speeding, not paying your taxes or looking the other way--Callahan breaks down a cultural pattern of ends always, ALWAYS justifying the means. What separates this book from many is that he doesn't just identify the pattern, but the longterm problems that follow. When X amount of people cheat in one area that's kind of understood, but when the number increases to Y the trust level drops incredibly--to the point where cheating then increases to keep pace. I noticed this myself the other day, in fact: I was driving out of town on a road I wasn't familiar with when I realized my lane ended; they were doing construction and before I even knew it I had accidentally bypassed a whole string of cars waiting to get off an exit. When I went to enter the new lane a car let me in, thankfully, but I couldn't help but think right then of all the other drivers waiting there who probably thought I was cheating, that I did it on purpose because I wasn't willing to wait. Why would they think that? Because I think it all the time...not because I'm cynical but because the ratio has gone up in recent years. For many years I drove and hardly noticed such patterns, but now I see it so often (virtually everywhere I go) and the trust has faded, even for the random guy that does make a mistake just like I did. (And yes...eventually that DOES become cynicism and honest people ARE given a bad rap.) Once we HAVE TO LIE, once we HAVE TO CHEAT to stay on target or on schedule with all the others, where does that leave us? What is the expense? Callahan touches on that dilemma nicely, and the book helps us look at our own character, if only that. And while it's easy to justify everything we do, we ourselves know what corners we've cut, and feeling trustworthy ourselves makes trusting others easier. Some of us have to get pretty far along in life to know the true value in that, that character isn't solely defined by what others see.
Rating:
Summary: Look at our so-called "role models"
Review: Look at the so-called "leader of the free world", Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld. Can you name any bigger cheats and liers? And the amazing way they get away with it? Blind Americans give them the go-ahead to cheat, lie, and kill in the name of power and money. Damn, after 4 years of nothing but lying to us, they got re-elected! Americans have no one to blame but themselves as we slip into fascism.
I've never seen nor heard of any bigger immoral, lying, disgraceful people in this country in my life. They make Nixon look like a moral upstanding citizen. The message to the youth - cheat and lie to get ahead or be left behind.
Hail to the cheat!
Rating:
Summary: More Americans are doing wrong to get ahead
Review: More Americans are doing wrong to get ahead, and a common perception is evolving that in order to get ahead in the world, a certain amount of cheating is required. In The Cheating Culture, author David Callahan exposes and studies this cheating idea, from those who would hook up illegally to free cable television to cheating in higher education circles, on taxes, and in big business.
Rating:
Summary: Too many cheapshots
Review: Only a moderately good book. There are only a couple of chapters worth reading. Too much of the book is dedicated at taking cheapshots at people (namely the rich). David blames the inequality between the rich and the poor as the source of cheating, but what ever happened to individual responsibility? Also, he provides no reasonable solution to the problem.
Rating:
Summary: You're Going to Get Caught Someday. Well, Maybe Not.
Review: The Cheating Culture describes an America where 74% of high school students have cheated on an exam, where parents pull strings to get their toddlers into the best pre-schools, and where it is standard practice to pad one's resume with non-existent degrees. Otherwise honest people under-report their taxes, splice into free cable TV, and over-report their insurance losses. Why do they do it? 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.
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