2018 – 7th Grade National 4th Place Winner

Adam Hoekstra, Minnesota.


Throughout your day, how many people have lied to you, and how many more told the truth? I believe for most people, telling the truth is normal and to be expected, but lying isn’t. This is one of the reasons why I believe deceit has a greater impact on society.


As an example, say you lied about how much money you make. If you say you make less money than you actually do, so you can get a lower tax rate, you could be arrested for tax fraud. Or if you borrow money outside of a bank loan, in addition to a bank loan, you may not be able to pay off both because you were not truthful about your outstanding debt. In that situation you could be taken to court for not being able to pay in full one or both of the loans. But what happens if you tell the truth? Life goes on as normal. Sure, you could lie and not use it for any financial gain, but if you just lied to your friends you could still ruin your friendship.


Deceit doesn’t only create immense impacts on personal lives, it also can have impacts on entire countries. For instance, take the current situation in North Korea. All citizens of that country have been lied to since birth. They are taught that their leader is a god and has the ability to change the weather. They are also told that the United States is full of sadistic and war-loving people. Other deceitful information they receive includes that all of their hardships are due to the Unites States’ aggression. It is for these reasons that the United States and other countries look at North Korea as a secretive and deceptive country, and as a possible threat. If their citizens are told that people in the United States are evil, they will have less of an inner conflict about attacking, either with atomic bombs, or as a military.


With all these thoughts in mind, I truly believe that deceit has a greater impact on society because of the legal repercussions, like tax fraud and debt. It also has social issues like the end of friendships. Another thing is moral values. How will you end up viewing yourself after telling a lie? Finally it has political consequences like losing an office, starting a war, or losing international relations.

 

 

 



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