America is great because it was good.

Jon, you point out an interesting dimension to the problem of ethics in business in the copy and paste below from your paper.

In effect, you are saying a country gets the ethics it can afford! When there is a surplus of wealth, we care little about how people behave. However, when scarcity bangs at our door and knocks it down, we jolly well pay attention to how others behave.

As our economy continues to tank, look for more and more scrutiny of ethical behavior in all areas of society. For instance, taxpayers will pay attention to the glaring lack of discipline in our public schools, which produces people unfit for the workforce. We cannot afford babying adolescents forever now.

As the economic pain increases, look for a return to the frugal New England values that founded this once-great country. If we return to them, we may once again restore what made us great.

As Alexis DeToqueville, a French visitor to America in the first half of the nineteenth century put, it, "America is great, because America is good." He got it right. We need to get it right again.

"When times are good, the American people generally let these massive paychecks slide. As long as the average American keeps their job, their 401k does not lose money, and their income continually to rise they can look the other way when these Wall Street executives take home massive bailouts. However, as the economy falls into this recession, it is hard for the American public to swallow these huge bonuses at the same time as bank bailouts."