Rating: 
Summary: Right On! Training in Personal Ethics Greatly Needed
Review: Great book, except for all the proofreader oversights in my copy, i.e., misspellings, extra words, transpositions, etc. I hope the next edition is much improved in this area.Callahan hits one problem right on the head: training in personal ethics, personal integrity, and personal character are greatly lacking in our educational system. The problem is perpetuated because many parents don't fully understand this lack of training. I wish the author had spent more time on this and how the development of spiritual values might be the answer for many who are brought up in a faith-based environment. I hope that Mr. Callahan will bring out new editions of this book every three to five years. It is that good! Business Ethics programs in colleges and universities around the country should find it to be a great resource.
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: Not worth the trouble to read
Review: I only made it to page 49 before giving up. This book is plain depressing, not because of what the title proposes but the books content. I feel 'cheated' by this simplistic tome on an issue that deserves indepth analysis and evaluation. Is this just another liberal bashing the conservatives, it reads that way. I never made it to your suggested solution(s).
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: Cut N Paste News
Review: In Robert Altmans "The Player", the brash new producer picks up a newspaper and describes how headlines could be used alone for movie scripts, rendering writers obsolete. The Cheating Culture reads like a cut and paste from headlines over the last 10 years relative to nefarious characters caught in the act. After a review of news items, the book descends into a laughable thesis of "how to fix everything". It's in this section that the author abandons the interesting material, reminding me of a passable cover band deciding it's time to play their originals. Do yourself a favor and watch or read the frontline.org programs on the same topics, with much greater depth.
Rating:
Summary: Cut N Paste News
Review: In Robert Altmans "The Player", the brash new producer picks up a newspaper and describes how headlines could be used alone for movie scripts, rendering writers obsolete. The Cheating Culture reads like a cut and paste from headlines over the last 10 years relative to nefarious characters caught in the act. After a review of news items, the book descends into a laughable thesis of "how to fix everything". It's in this section that the author abandons the interesting material, reminding me of a passable cover band deciding it's time to play their originals. Do yourself a favor and watch or read the frontline.org programs on the same topics, with much greater depth.
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: Well spoken dialogue for a serious problem
Review: Mark hits the problem right where it counts, I have not come across a more articulate portrayal on some of the so-called "unwritten laws" of our society. He goes beyond whining, in fact he is above it. His criticisms are quick-witted with a one shot/one kill sniper style- he left ambiguity at the door when writing this book.
Mark tears into the problem of chronic cheating from academics to taxes and corporate scandals. As he admits, it is extremely difficult to get accurate studies on cheating, but he manages to sum it up in realistic terms. Thoroughly well written, this is not a "me too" book- it's a great book if you're curious about our modern culture, written with confident frankness. The message is clear - we need to stop cheating to survive.
Rating:
Summary: Well spoken dialogue for a serious problem
Review: Mark hits the problem right where it counts, I have not come across a more articulate portrayal on some of the so-called "unwritten laws" of our society. He goes beyond whining, in fact he is above it. His criticisms are quick-witted with a one shot/one kill sniper style- he left ambiguity at the door when writing this book.
Mark tears into the problem of chronic cheating from academics to taxes and corporate scandals. As he admits, it is extremely difficult to get accurate studies on cheating, but he manages to sum it up in realistic terms. Thoroughly well written, this is not a "me too" book- it's a great book if you're curious about our modern culture, written with confident frankness. The message is clear - we need to stop cheating to survive.
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