A culture teaches people what to value through the people it rewards. America’s long admiration for clever money-making reveals how dishonesty becomes normal and honesty starts to feel like a disadvantage.
Success can become its own justification, even when it’s achieved through dishonest means. A clever scammer is sometimes met with begrudging respect. We think to ourselves, “They knew how the system worked and used it to their advantage.” Or we blame the victim and say, “Other people were foolish enough to fall for it. That’s their problem. I would’ve known better!”
This general attitude has existed for a long time. Writing about his visit to America in 1842, Charles Dickens describes the admiration for dishonest money-making that still feels familiar today:
Another prominent feature is the love of ‘smart’ dealing: which gilds over many a swindle and gross breach of trust; many a defalcation, public and private; and enables many a knave to hold his head up with the best, who well deserves a halter; though it has not been without its retributive operation, for this smartness has done more in a few years to impair the public credit, and to cripple the public resources, than dull honesty, however rash, could have effected in a century. The merits of a broken speculation, or a bankruptcy, or of a successful scoundrel, are not gauged by its or his observance of the golden rule, ‘Do as you would be done by,’ but are considered with reference to their smartness.
I recollect, on both occasions of our passing that ill-fated Cairo on the Mississippi, remarking on the bad effects such gross deceits must have when they exploded, in generating a want of confidence abroad, and discouraging foreign investment: but I was given to understand that this was a very smart scheme by which a deal of money had been made: and that its smartest feature was, that they forgot these things abroad, in a very short time, and speculated again, as freely as ever.
The following dialogue I have held a hundred times:
“Is it not a very disgraceful circumstance that such a man as So-and-so should be acquiring a large property by the most infamous and odious means, and notwithstanding all the crimes of which he has been guilty, should be tolerated and abetted by your Citizens? He is a public nuisance, is he not?”
“Yes, sir.”
“A convicted liar?”
“Yes, sir.”
“He has been kicked, and cuffed, and caned?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And he is utterly dishonourable, debased, and profligate?”
“Yes, sir.”
“In the name of wonder, then, what is his merit?”
“Well, sir, he is a smart man.”
The alarming thing about this exchange is that everyone knows the man is dishonest, but they admire him anyway. His ability to manipulate others becomes a mark of intelligence and worthiness. “He’s willing to do anything to succeed. He’s cutthroat. He always finds a way to come out on top.”
Once this type of ruthlessness becomes something to look up to, honesty starts looking like naivety and weakness. Good-natured people can be especially vulnerable in low-trust societies where taking advantage of others is treated as normal.
Dickens also observed that Americans could sometimes even take pride in their distrust, treating it as proof of their shrewdness and ability to see through a con. Being suspicious of everyone becomes a badge of sophistication, while trusting others makes you look like a fool.
The scammer’s success and wealth become visible to all, often seen as proof of their inherent value. The pain caused to others fades into the background, and the victims become a footnote in another American success story. Culture praises the winner and scorns the loser, reinforcing the just-world fallacy: the belief that people always get what they deserve.
This worship of money-making has a long history in America. Some of this may trace back to its Protestant roots. Sociologist Max Weber argued that certain Protestant traditions treated material success through disciplined work as a sign of God’s blessing. This association between wealth and morality may have continued into the present day, while shedding its religious garb and placing less emphasis on how the money was earned. The bank account becomes the proof.
What happens when getting ahead becomes more important than how you get ahead?
In this competitive environment, people begin to justify their own dishonesty by thinking, “If I don’t take advantage of others, someone will take advantage of me. This is just how the world works.” The same zero-sum outlook can also encourage a crab bucket mentality, where people feel they need to bring others down to rise up themselves.
This attitude can show up among billionaires as well as everyday Americans, from phone scammers targeting someone’s grandmother to promoters running crypto pump-and-dumps.
In a modern echo of Dickens’s dialogue, one commenter in a 2022 BlackHatWorld thread asks, “Isn’t Andrew Tate a Scam?” and someone replies, “well he made a shitload of money from his webcam business. men lie. women lie. numbers dont.” In a materialistic world, money becomes the ultimate arbiter of someone’s value.
When wealth is treated as proof of someone’s worth, we can feel compelled to copy the same tactics they used, even when they cross our own moral lines. This becomes part of our map of reality. We just assume this is how success always looks. “All money-making requires getting a little dirty.”
Why worry about treating people fairly if you are only respected for your wealth? The person who refuses to exploit others starts to look like someone who is gullible or simply doesn’t understand the game. That perspective lowers trust and teaches people to treat ordinary dealings as contests. Dishonesty starts to feel like a prerequisite for survival.
It’s hard to simply tell people to be more honest and fair when we live in a world that incentivizes dishonesty. When people are struggling to meet basic economic needs, a little grift here and there can feel like a normal part of modern American life. We begin to think, “Our leaders do it, so why shouldn’t we?” We grant ourselves the moral license to take part.
Everyday grifting can mean anything from selling miracle cures or supplements with unsubstantiated health claims to exaggerating what beauty products or “looksmaxxing” advice can do. It can also include buying fake followers to seem more popular on social media, promoting gambling apps as a route to easy money, or recruiting friends and neighbors into MLM schemes with false promises of a lucrative side hustle.
The American Dream promises that every citizen can earn a living, buy a home, and raise a family. But even when people no longer believe this dream is attainable, they can still feel entitled to the life they were promised. When honest work seems unlikely to get them there, “whatever it takes” can start to feel morally justified. These moral compromises – small and large – become ordinary ways of getting ahead.
Every time we admire someone’s success while looking the other way at dishonesty and unethical behavior, we help create an environment where scams, frauds, and grifts become normalized. In that ecosystem, people learn to expect deception and treat their own honesty as a weakness. It’s wise to stay guarded in such an environment, but we have to be careful not to let it swallow us whole and change who we are.