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Honesty and Trust
Several decades ago I used to enjoy an occasional lunch in with the late Professor G. Warren Nutter, a distinguished economist who taught at the University of Virginia. Professor Nutter had considerable expertise in comparative economic systems, particularly that of the former Soviet Union. While he had a deep understanding of economic theory, he always stressed that markets do not operate within a vacuum and we gain a greater understanding of human behavior if we paid attention to the role of institutions and other non-market forces.
At one of our luncheons, just out of the clear blue sky, and maybe just to tease me into an argument, Professor Nutter said that if we had to stop to count our change each time we purchased something, economic activity would grind to a halt. That’s a bit of exaggeration, but Professor Nutter was making the point that the institutions of trust and honesty are vital to human well-being. Honesty and trust are not simply matters of character and morality; they’re crucial for efficient human interaction and a smoothly working economy.
To gain an appreciation for the significance of honesty and trust, consider what our day-to-day life would be if we couldn’t trust anyone. We purchase a bottle of a hundred folic acid tablets from our drugstore. How many of us bother to count the tablets to ensure that we in fact received a hundred? We drive into a gasoline station and the meter reads that we put ten gallons of gasoline into our fuel tank. When was the last time anyone of us bothered to verify whether in fact we received ten gallons instead of nine and a half? We paid seven dollars for a one-pound package of steak. How many of us bother to verify that it was in fa...
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Many More Victims
The fact that honesty and trust are vital should make us re-think the treatment of the dishonest and untrustworthy. Dishonest people impose losses that go beyond those suffered by their direct victims. If pack-ages are stolen from people’s doorsteps, the rest of us incur costs when delivery companies stop leaving packages unless someone is home. If people rob bus operators and taxi drivers, all of us are required to have exact change or small bills.
Considering the large economic effects of dishonesty and of not being able to trust one another, we should show little tolerance for violators. Fortunately, we live in a society where we can generally trust and accept the word of one another. That’s the good news. The bad news is there’s nowhere near the level of trust and honesty there was as recently as a half-century ago.
Fraud is one of Canada's most severe acts of financial criminality as the economic impact of this crime could potentially handicap an entire society. According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre Annual Statistic Report (CAFC), a report established to monitor fraud with the aid of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and Competition Bureau of Canada, it reported an annual loss of 74 million dollars affecting over 14,472 victims (Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, 2014). Given this alarming statistic, it is worrisome that we as a society still ignore or turn a blind eye towards those who commit fraud as seen in the low conviction (Canada Revenue Agency, 2014), and focus our efforts on petty thefts as seen with the high rate of convictions
In Stephen L Carter's "The Insufficiency of Honesty", he attempts to dissect exactly what it means to be honest and to have integrity in the worlds view. We soon realize as a reader that it takes a greater deal of effort to participate in
“Me, I'm dishonest, and you can always trust a dishonest man to be dishonest. Honestly, it's the honest ones you have to watch out for.” This quote from Johnny Depp is his most famous quote. Johnny is a very well respected Hollywood actor and has become wise over his years. This quote is full of truth and is really thought provoking. People that you know are dishonest are hard to trust to do something, but at least you know that they are not trustworthy. Someone that you believe is trustworthy may be a dishonest person and you do not know it. So you put your trust in them and they take advantage of your trust and betray you. That is not always the case, but sadly it does happen more than you would know.
William Damon uses the classical rhetorical devices of logos, pathos and ethos to convince his audience of the urgency to address the decline of honesty. He provides a balanced assessment of the need for discretion in specific circumstance, the expectation of lying that leads to the decline in honesty, and the outright accommodation to cheat without consequence. By alluding to historical attitudes regarding honesty, Damon provides a vast background to support his thesis. His essay successfully evokes a response to this current situation of decline in honesty, and creates an urgent call for action to restore the virtue of honesty. As a society, the audience would likely agree with Damon that the virtue of honesty is fundamental to the success of democracy and we would desire to espouse to the protection of this jeopardized virtue.
Although it is considered wrong to tell lies, it seems that literature has offered us situations where telling lies isn’t necessarily bad. Of course, lying often has a tragic outcome, but not always for the person or people who told the lie or lies. Oftentimes, these unfortunate outcomes are directed at the person about whom the lie was told. Furthermore, these stories have explained that dishonesty can result in success for both the liar and the target. Maybe we have been teaching the wrong values to our children.
Plato once said: “Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.” People are taught from a very young age never to lie or keep secrets. It would be easy for anyone to stand behind the argument: “Honesty is the best policy,” but in times of personal anguish, that decree is quickly disdained. What this argument fails to consider is that keeping a secret or lying is the justifiable in times of crisis.
Stanley, Robert H. The Movie Idiom: Film as a Popular Art Form. Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. 2011. Print
Stephanie Ericsson’s The Ways We Lie, analyzes and reflects on how lying has simply become the norm in our society. We all lie, there is not one person in the world that does not lie. Most people lie because they are afraid of telling the truth, however what they do not know is telling a lie can lead them in the wrong direction because many things can happen when lying to a person. The person can find out when everything unravels that person will not have trust in you and you would be known as a liar. To every action there is a consequence, so why not deal with just one consequence when telling the
Jacobs, Lewis. “Refinements in Technique.” The Rise of the American Film. New York: Teachers College Press, 1974. 433-452. Print.
In recent times, such stereotyped categorizations of films are becoming inapplicable. ‘Blockbusters’ with celebrity-studded casts may have plots in which characters explore the depths of the human psyche, or avant-garde film techniques. Titles like ‘American Beauty’ (1999), ‘Fight Club’ (1999) and ‘Kill Bill 2’ (2004) come readily into mind. Hollywood perhaps could be gradually losing its stigma as a money-hungry machine churning out predictable, unintelligent flicks for mass consumption. While whether this image of Hollywood is justified remains open to debate, earlier films in the 60’s and 70’s like ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (1967) and ‘Taxi Driver’ (1976) already revealed signs of depth and avant-garde film techniques. These films were successful as not only did they appeal to the mass audience, but they managed to communicate alternate messages to select groups who understood subtleties within them.
“Most people in the U.S. want to do the right thing, and they want others to do the right thing. Thus, reputation and trust are important to pretty much everyone individuals and organizations. However, individuals do have different values, attributes, and priorities that guide their decisions and behavior. Taken to an extreme, almost any personal value, attribute, or priority can “cause” an ethical breach (e.g. risk taking, love of money or sta...
Through out history people have been influenced by what they want to hear and the way a current trend is happening. The evolution of mankind has drifted towards a different society than what we where born to sustain. We are emotionally driven human beings that want to feel accepted by the rules of society. Sometimes an individual can confuse actions or emotions towards trying to fulfill the standards society has imposed. I have analyzed two articles that incorporate how a society reacts towards integrity as well as honesty and the belief that an individual in order to be a part of society one must comply with the standards that are set. As I began to interpret what Stephen L. Carter explained in “The Insufficiency of Honesty” I examined they
When he was initially in love with Alma, Leo wrote about the only thing he knew about: his love. In doing so, he unintentionally set himself up for loss in the future. Leo left his book with a friend, Zvi Litvinoff, before the two parted ways. Many years later, “the only copy was lost in flood” and was seemingly lost forever (Krauss 121-122). The book was his love for Alma in words; only adding to the emptiness and loss that he copes with ...
Deception exists in media, among prestigious universities, and perhaps most commonly in the workplace. According to Dunleavy (2010), reasons for deception in the workplace include: competitiveness, conflict, or a response to a supervisor or fellow employee (p. 241). Dunleavy develops hypotheses’, conducts experiments, and collects data to determine what is considered acceptable and unacceptable behavior as it applies to deception in the workplace. Ultimately, the reason for deceiving and the method in which one deceives, through either withholding (omission) or distortion (commission), directly effects the perception of coworkers’ credibility, power, and trustworthiness (Dunleavy, p.241).
Truth-telling has become altered in today’s society. In certain situations it is all right to lie or deceive. People have regarded truth-telling as overrated. It is amazing the words we put with the word lying. We call them so many various things such as; exaggeration, little white lies, half truths, deceptions, and fibbing. Lying has become a very complicated topic today. Lying can be used in many different ways such as; to protect the innocent, for tradition, and the esteem of individuals. On the other hand, lying can be used as a tool of deception and manipulation. When used in this manner lying becomes detrimental to an individual and to a society. “We need to sort out what is and what is not morally justifiable, just as we must sort out moral from immoral behavior in politics, science, and religion (qtd. in hooke, 210)”