Reminders & Lecture Notes

REMINDERS: First, check our the April 23 post where I describe our last family activity which involves making up final exam questions. You should be doing that on your own, and I'll try to set aside some class time for the families to confer during this coming week.
Second, several people have not turned in essay III on Consumed. I plan to hand those back on Tuesday (4/29), which will be the deadline for late essays. In any case try to get it in ASAP.
Third, the paper on how to study a social problem of your choice is due on Tuesday (4/29), when we will begin your brief presentations (5-10 min.). As was determined by cutting cards, we will start with the top of the alphabet and work our way down. Please be prepared.
Finally, do continue reading The Cheating Culture. I am going to post some lecture notes below and will probably add to them during this week. As I indicated in class, I do want to get through at least Chapter 6 in that book.

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Lecture Notes: The Cheating Culture

Let me begin with a couple final observations about Chapter 1. I left off commenting about the last of four reasons why Callahan believes cheating is more widespread today (4) Trickle-Down Corruption --

(a) Callahan acknowledges that a lot of middle class Americans are feeling both insecure and cynical these days -- a dangerous combination indeed. And so they bend the rules as they see fit.

(To his credit, Callahan does recognize that cheating is also pervasive in other societies where the market, individualism, and materialism are less pronounced.)

G. Finally, he underscores the significant costs associated with widespread cheating, which I would argue clearly run contrary to any notion of a harmonious, just social order. It strikes at the integrity of the whole social order. (see last paragraph p. 24 - middle p. 25)

Chapter Two: Cheating on a Bottom-line Economy

A. Throughout this chapter, Callahan shows how increasing pressures to meet some sales quota, maximize profits, or boost a company's stock price -- i.e., "bottom-line pressures" -- have created pressures to cheat in everything from the auto repair business to corporate law firms to doctors. This focus on the bottom line often runs roughshod over individuals' sense of integrity and honesty.

1. Notes that auto repair fraud is estimated at about $40 billion a year. Sears was called on the carpet for such practices in the 1990s, but the company ended up getting a slap on the wrist, and as part of the monetary settlement did not even have to admit wrongdoing (which happens a lot).

2. Integrity, whether of the individual mechanic or the company, is pitted against economic security. And, no surprise, economic security wins.

B. Lawyers can act just as unscrupulously (if not more so) when faced with similar pressures. Callahan focuses on big law firms where there is a huge gap between a young associate who may make $125,000/yr. working 80 hours a week, versus the lawyer who makes partner and can make nearly $2 million/yr.

1. Concern for the bottom line seems just as intense, leading lawyers to overbill clients, charge $500/hr. Money seems to be the preeminent concern, not being effective, intelligent interpreters of our complex laws, which is a service many of us need from time to time.

2. Research of Lisa Lerman is revealing in this respect. (see last paragraph p. 38 - middle p. 39)

3. Although there are some legal auditing firms out there to check up on these practices, most legal bills are never audited at all, some are barely looked at, like auto repair and medical bills all too often. (p. 40)

C. "Changes in corporate law since the 1970s, as well as the experience of Sears auto mechanics, illustrate the power of economic change to shape personal 'ethics.'" (pp. 41-2)
"In both cases, personal qualms about cheating easily get buried because 'everybody's doing it.'" (p. 42)

**(Of course, as long as your primary consideration is just you or your family, and not the larger society or the integrity of the social order, you're probably going to cheat. We need to be made fully aware and thoroughly educated about the significance of that larger social order and that we are not just isolate beings who operate on the narrow basis of what may appear to be in our best interest.)


That's all for now. I'll be adding to this through this upcoming week.