Ethics

It is the moment to bite the bullet and admit to a dishonorable little skeleton in the closet. Players who use steroids in professional baseball, high school students who cheat on the SATs, misleading advertisements filled with the all to common "to good to be true " and CEOs who cook the books in American corporations all may be acting sensibly

Today there is so much to be gained by being just a little better and above others -- by hitting a few more home runs than any other professional baseball player, by getting to and staying at the very top of the American corporation, or by being the absolute best at what you do for a living.

Salaries and rewards for those who come out on top have gone crazy. The highest-paid baseball player earned $2.3 million in the 1988 season, $6.3 million in 1994 and more than $20 million last year. CEOs got 40 times what the average employee in their company earned in 1980, and 400 times by 2000. The Olympic gold-medal winner who won a nation's praise and an endorsement or two in the 1970s became an endorsement bonanza by 2000. Who would settle for less when they are bombarded by ads like Nike's during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics: "You don't win silver. You lose gold''?

The winner-take-all culture exists in almost every area of American life. Science Magazine, the most prestigious in its field, has reported that in bioscience, what economists call a "tournament market'' exists: The first to make an extraordinary finding reaps a hugely disproportionate share of the fame and future grants.

Ahead of the pack

Tempted by these rewards, some people climbing the ladder may do almost anything to get to the top, and some who already have made it there will do almost anything to stay. Athletes turn to performance enhancers to remain superstars as they age; corporate executives falsify the books to retain their regal perks and immense pay. Former WorldCom CFO Scott Sullivan testified recently, for example, that executives at his company fraudulently adjusted the books to please Wall Street, which presumably would help keep the executives secure in their jobs.

The superstar culture has seeped even into our middle and high schools. Michael Dillingham, the 49ers team physician and a crusader against drug use by athletes, says parents of high school athletes are sometimes the most eager to try any drug that will give their child an edge.

Some children and their parents have convinced themselves that they have to be superstars, and go to Harvard, Stanford or Brown to have a worthwhile life. This attitude leads to cheating by the most qualified, not the least qualified, students in some schools.

Adding to the temptation, athletes, high school students and scientists may convince themselves that anyone who is on top has cheated to get there, and therefore they rationalize it for themselves.

So, we have become a society captivated by "the winner.'' We have made the one who dominates the box office, comes out on top in sports or rises to the peak in business a new kind of royalty. It is no wonder people cheat.

Cheating has always been with us. But is it worse now? Unfortunately, there are no reliable measures of the level of cheating. There were baseball and business scandals a century ago, and card cheaters were a fixture of the Old West.

What seems new to me is that cheating has gone mainstream. It shows up in almost every corner of American life -- from professional athletics and Wall Street businesses to high school SATs. And it is tolerated more. There is less outrage and a more forgiving attitude when a baseball player is found with a corked bat or a student is caught cheating on an exam. Have we accepted at some level that cheating is reasonable? I hope not.

We would have to delve deeply into the national psyche to determine why we need heroes and celebrities so badly. I suspect it has to do with a spiritual crisis in American society -- a search for what has real meaning. Worshiping heroes and celebrities can be a substitute for finding fulfillment in our own relationships and service.

On a more practical level, I blame both the media and our brand of competitive capitalism. Olympics coverage focuses on events where an American may win a gold medal, ignoring those where a great effort produced a silver or bronze. And the media dedicate a disproportionate number of column inches or broadcast time to one member of a nine-member baseball team. Driven by the media attention, fans flock to the ballpark where the superstar is playing, and the superstar demands a huge salary based on the tickets he or she sells.

Competitive markets, so effective in the allocation of resources in the U.S. economy, have also led to a frantic bidding war for certain types of top talent. Companies bid excessively for graduates of prestigious MBA programs. CEOs have enough market power to negotiate contracts that enable them to walk away with millions of dollars even if they fail.

Role of media

The media have cooperated fully in creating this "great leader'' or rock-star model. Scanning the covers of business magazines, you might think General