I think to try and decide national issues is too large a scope of emphasis. This is mainly for SELF HELP, as the forum, and the book explains. Deciding your own levels of morality and values....?
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Are we Americans becoming more moral? Perhaps in some ways. Reportedly, more and more people are volunteering to help the poor, the sick, and the elderly. For the first 80 years of this century, US citizens have gradually paid more taxes (that is doing good!) but more recently political conservatives have been encouraging us to hate taxes.

In addition, there is a lot of evidence we are backsliding morally, e.g. a few years ago 9 out of 10 defense contractors were under criminal investigation. In 1990, when tax payers were required to give the Social Security numbers for every dependent, seven million names disappeared!

A nation-wide survey by Ralph Wexler of the Institute of Ethics indicates that 1/3 of high schoolers and 1/6 of college students admit stealing something in the last year. Over 1/3 said they would lie on their resume to get a job. Over 1/2 of college students admit cheating in some way, over 60% say they would cheat on an important test. Other surveys show that 8 out of 10 high school students admit cheating.

Likewise, 1/4 Americans think it is okay to cheat on their auto insurance, 30%-50% think goofing off at work is okay, 1 in 6 use drugs on the job, and 1/3 to 1/2 cheat on their spouses. Almost 60% of American adults have used force against another person; 7% say they would kill someone if paid enough; 25% would abandon their families for money (Etzioni, 1993).

Furthermore, Wexler says only 2% of students get caught cheating because teachers don't watch carefully; therefore, maybe crime does pay and maybe honesty is, in some ways, not always the best policy from a selfish point of view.
http://www.psychologicalselfhelp.org...3/chap3_4.html