A new study by the Josephson Institute of Ethics reports that young people ages 17 and younger are five times more likely than older adults to embrace lying and cheating as a way to get ahead in life. They're nearly four times more likely to deceive their bosses and three times more likely to keep change given to them by mistake.
And so the tsk-tsking has begun. "When you see that teens are five times more likely than adults to think it's okay to cheat to get ahead, we have a problem," Rich Jarc, executive director of the Los Angeles-based institute told the Los Angeles Times. "Just think if five times the number of people in business, politics and banking hold those beliefs. That's alarming."
But is it?
The study relied on a survey of 7,000 people in various age groups. That's right, a survey. In other words, it depended on honest answers. Now, there's no real reason to suspect that young people would erroneously admit to lying and cheating -- and accepting such practices as the norm. It's not as though the schoolyard bully was the one doing the survey.
But isn't it possible that older folks might be less than forthright about their own little deceptions? Only 22 percent of 41- to 50-year-olds have lied to a spouse or partner? Really? Does-this-make-my-butt-look-big fibs notwithstanding, we find that hard to believe.
A number of explanations have been posited for the rampant dishonesty among young people, among them the increased societal pressure to excel and the ease of cheating and stealing via the internet.
But we wonder too if young people are just more comfortable in the gray areas than their pre-Nixon counterparts, if they're more willing to own what prior generations might prefer to sweep under the rug.
Older adults did admit to one sin in pretty large numbers: using the internet for personal reasons while at work. We can almost hear the pause on the end of the line as they weighed that answer, and we can't help wondering if the older generation has forgotten a truth the test-taking generation employs just about every day: The first answer that comes to your head is usually the right one.
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Comments
the young are liberal
By sailmaker - 11/03/2009 - 5:43 pmI see a direct correlation.....the young are overwhelmingly LIBERAL
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The Biggest Lie
By ccitizen777 - 11/03/2009 - 7:07 amThe biggest lie in our society right now relates to the unbelieveable transfer of wealth from our youngest workers to our retirees through the social security and medicare programs. These programs are not funded from any "savings"; rather, retirees, who are living longer, are receiving much more from these programs than they ever paid in. Every time some elderly person says "I am just getting what I paid in," they are lying to their children and grandchildren, whose taxes are paying their current benefits. These welfare programs, along with the growing national debt and healthcare reforms that would require young people to pay far more than their healthcare costs, are such a large and overwhelming burden on our young children that they live under a cloud of uncertainty. If the elderly generations are indeed the "greatest," then they should openly acknowledge the truth and then use their votes to lift these unacceptable burdens from their children and grandchildren. Then, the young generations (our nation's future) will have something to look forward to other than paying off the debts of the older, irresponsible generations.
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Yup, take of yer shoes and do the math
By Bob Frost - 11/03/2009 - 5:47 pmThe Social Security tax rate (excluding the Medicare tax) for the year 2009 is 6.20% on the first $106,800. The benefits minus taxes calculation changes with wage level. The lower the wage level the more likely the net benefit will be positive: you get back more than you put in and the higher the wage level the more likely you'll get less than what you put in. This is exactly opposite to your assertion because the higher wage levels pay more over their working life
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You need to educate yourself.
By Damkeeper - 11/03/2009 - 9:41 amThe Social Security trust fund currently has a balance of 2.5 trillion dollars. The reasons you quote are because the Federal Goverment has borrowed (or stolen) every penny of that fund and it exists only on paper. Even if the Feds paid back any of that money, they pay NO interest. Since the money has been stolen, SS benefits obviously have to be paid out of the general fund.
As far as receiving more than paid in, that might be true for some people but not many. If my SS deductions during my working life, along with the matching employer contributions, had been invested by me instead of our Goverment even at a lousy 5% interest, I could withdraw more from that investment now than what I get in my monthly benefit, AND NEVER TOUCH THE PRINCIPLE.
Am I getting what I paid for? Yes, a percentage of it. Our goverment stole and wasted the rest.
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