Английский язык для экономистов - Малюга Е.Н.
ISBN 5-469-00341-8
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Cheating. What could be more American? From the snake oil salesmen of the late 19th century to the stock manipulators of the 1920s to the spit-ballers of modern baseball. But today it seems absolutely everybody is doing it. We cheat — or at least try to cheat — in every aspect of our lives. One out of four Americans surveyed say it's acceptable to cheat on their taxes. Former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski sends paintings he bought to a New Hampshire address to cheat New York State out of the sales tax. College bound students cheat on the SAT tests. Teachers cheat by giving their students the answers to standardized tests so the teachers qualify for bonuses. Athletes cheat by using performance-enhancing drugs. Successful authors cheat by appropriating others' writings as their own. Even colleges steeped in honor codes — the UniversityofVirginiaand the USNaval Academy — have been rocked by massive cheating scandals in recent years.
After a depressing 2002 in which corporate executives too numerous to count cheated shareholders by fudging their accounts or manipulating markets, we have to ask whether cheating has become the new national norm. We have always had a few cheaters among us, but has the typical American now lost his or her moral compass? Have we lost our fundamental commitment to integrity and fair play? First of all, why do people cheat? There are two simple answers, neither very noble. People cheat to get ahead, even if they don't qualify for the advancement and even if they can't win a fair competition. Such people don't care about anyone else but themselves. This adult lies about the toaster he broke so he can get a full refund. The teenager lies about her age to save money on a movie ticket. The other reason is simple laziness.
But there are new reasons why people cheat — and these may give us a clue about how to stop the rising tide of cheating. Some people cheat today because they simply cannot get everything done which needs to be done. American life has become so intense, so rushed, so fully packed. Many shortcuts we seek involve cheating - copying school papers from the Internet or cheating our companies by telling our bosses we are sick so we can catch up on housework or errands.
Some people cheat today not just because they want to get ahead, but more because they fear the embarrassment of failure. Parents put huge ex- Unit 5. Business Ethics
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pectations on children — you are a failure if you don't go to an Ivy League school. You have to win; we've sacrificed so much to make you a competitive swimmer. Companies put huge pressures on employees — you now have to do the job of two, or you will be laid off too. And American culture says again and again that you have to be successful and wealthy to be happy. Faced with this fear of being a failure, too many people seek a shortcut and falsify their resume, cheat on their SATs1, or fudge numbers at work to look better.
Most threatening, at least to me, is the notion that more people are cheating today because they think everyone else cheats. I had to cheat on the test, some students argue, because everyone else cheats and we are graded on a curve. Some business students I have taught and some business people believe that "everyone cheats" and that you have to do so to be competitive. The widespread corporate scandals of the past year, touching so many of our blue-chip companies, have reinforced this cynical belief that good guys will finish last.
Finally, an increasing number of cheaters are arguing that they must cheat to resist unfair new systems of accountability. Teachers in schools are resistant to performance-based testing because it may threaten their jobs. Employees cheat to resist systems that silently measure their output. Some welfare advocates resist needs-based tests because they may remove some people from the rolls. So how can we reset the nation's moral compass and stem the troubling rise of cheating? There are things you and I can do individually — and there are things that must be done by our leaders in government, business, education, and the media.
What can we individually do? The first thing is to stand up for fair play in our own lives. We must resist the temptations to take short cuts with small acts of cheating. Pay full price for your child if he or she is actually 13 and not 12. And we need to become advocates for fair play. Talk to our children about how important integrity and fair play is and how cheating hurts them — it does!
We need to support efforts to control cheating. If someone is caught cheating, support strong penalties. If our own child is caught cheating, resist the temptation to blame the school or the teacher. If an athlete is caught cheating, support the referee or the rules which throw him off the team. Become intolerant of cheating around you.
We can turn down the pressure felt by our own spouses and children. It is OK if your husband does not get the big promotion; it's OK if your son
