Trust and Honesty

<p>America's culture is moving in a new and dangerous direction as it becomes more accepting and tolerant of dishonesty and financial abuse. Tamar Frankel argues that this phenomenon is not new; in fact it has a specific traceable past. During the past thirty years temptations and opportunities to defraud have risen; legal moral and theoretical barriers to abuse of trust have fallen. She goes on to suggest that fraud and the abuse of trust could have a widespread impact on American economy and prosperity and argues that the way to counter this disturbing trend is to reverse the culture of business dishonesty. Finally she presents the following thesis: If Americans have had enough of financial abuse they can demand of their leaders of themselves and of each other more honesty and trust and less cynicism. Americans can reject the actions attitudes theories and assumptions that brought us the corporate scandals of the 1990s. Though American society can have "bad apples" and its constituents hold differing opinions about the precise meaning of trust and truth it can remain honest as long as it aspires to honesty.</p>