The Rasmussen folks last week revealed a poll wherein American young people are just about evenly divided on whether they prefer capitalism to socialism. Among our under-30 crowd, 37% prefer capitalism, 33% socialism, and 30% are undecided.
Tie this purely disgusting finding to last year's Josephson Institute Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth, which determined levels of lying, cheating and stealing among high school students, and you'll see a very disturbing pattern of moral erosion.
- 30% stole from a store in the past year; 23% stole from a parent or other relative; 20% stole something from a friend.
- 42% lie regularly to save money; 83% lied to a parent about something significant.
- 64% cheated on a test in the last year; 38% cheated 2 or more times; 36% used the internet to plagiarize an assignment.
And by students' own admission, 26% confessed they lied on at least one or two questions on the survey. Experts agree that dishonesty on surveys usually is an attempt to conceal misconduct, i.e., to make oneself appear better than he actually is. But it gets even worse.
High school students admit to vast amounts of lying, cheating and stealing, but lo and behold, their confessions make nary a dent in their ethical self-esteem. A staggering 93 percent said they were satisfied with their personal ethics and character and 77 percent said that when it comes to doing what is right, "I am better than most people I know."
Those who lie now to parents and school authorities will certainly lie to get employment and then lie to stay employed. Those who cheat now on tests will later cheat the system for as much personal gain as they possibly can. Those who steal from stores and friends now will certainly steal even more from a public trough where they never come face to face with the real people from whom they are stealing.
These paragons of low virtue that our schools are turning out will make the perfect little socialists that a third of them apparently now dream of becoming. They'll do as little as possible to get by and won't even flinch before taking all they can from the inevitable scarcity of goods produced by state-tyrannized enterprise.
And which citizens among us are the most prone to lying, cheating, stealing, selfishness, and money-grubbing?
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A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when they lose their virtue they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader...If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security..Samuel Adams
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