Cream Cheese is Extra

As my life as a measly high school student comes to a close I find myself more and more often thinking about my future and life beyond college. Of course there are things I would love to do when I graduate. I’d love to play video games for a living or go on reality TV and never have to work again, but let’s be realistic. I’ll probably end up working at multiple places in my career and doing things that college never really prepared me for. And to get to where I want to be in life I’m going to have to work hard? It seems common these days that the people who reap the benefits are not necessarily the ones who do the most work or are the best in their field. Cheating and lying, actions held in such low regard in elementary school, become the norm as adults enter the workplace. In the first chapter of Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner’s book Freakonomics the two authors chronicle cheating in today’s society. From teachers to sumo wrestlers, it seems everyone will tell a white lie if they think they can get away with it. What’s even worse is that this cheating often does go unnoticed. So, what does this mean? Is lying just a natural human tendency that appears more prevalent as we mature? And I’m not saying cheating doesn't occur in high school but cyber day homework isn't the same as someone’s salary. Well from what the Stephens say, it’s circumstantial. In the case of the teachers, lying about student’s test scores and artificially boosting them translated into bigger bonuses and better funding. In the case of the sumo wrestlers, purposely losing a fight with a winning record to help out another fighter resulted in gimme win later in the season. Both situations are low risk, high reward. High test scores can be attributed to better teaching and wrestling matches are virtually random. After reading this I figured I might as well start practicing now because it seems like everyone cheats in the real world. However, Steven² breaks the big news later: humans are naturally good. I know, I know, you’ve heard it a thousand times but they have evidence and a story to boot. A Wall Street man leaves his job to go sell bagels in corporate buildings. His friends ridicule him, giving up his large salary just to have a relaxing job, who would ever do that. He leaves bagel boxes in break rooms all over the city and a jar to leave payment, 25¢ a bagel. Turns out he gets almost 90% return on each box and distributes hundreds of bagels a day. He’s not making a surplus of money like he used to, but here’s the thing: he’s happier.