Are people more dishonest now?

I hope not...but I'm aware of people being devious now but I think that comes with age and experience...(sigh...)

I think people are more materialist now, and I guess that could lead to dishonesty. Plus there is the drug problems that seem to get worse year by year. But whether people are inherently more dishonest is something I just can't say.

For 'honesty' read 'morality' and I think in this materialistic society people like to convince themselves that it's ' their right' to certain things in life and they will kid themselves on they are getting what they want by honest means when in fact they may well be twisting things to suit themselves, that amounts to dishonesty in my eyes. It all stems from the person who would take a paper clip from their company - that's actually stealing, doesn't matter what size the thing is, you have taken something that in essence does not belong to you and you have not paid for it. Not saying I am perfect, but that seems to be the general acceptance nowadays.

Good point - there's a lot of 'they can afford it' and 'they've got insurance' too! I still don't think modern life is worse than a couple of generations ago though...just different.

When I was a child 'doing the right thing' was important for its own sake. I think nowadays that particular view is not so prevalent; rather it's more about what people can 'get away with'. I spoke once to a very pleasant middle aged woman who believed it was perfectly alright to take and eat sweets from a pick and mix stand (in Woolworths) because 'everybody' does it. She actually could not be convinced that what she was doing was stealing!!