I don't understand economics enough to address the point on debt, but I have to comment on that:
> American culture of honesty; fraud and cheating are national scandals, not the norm
Wait what. Fraud and cheating are sometimes national scandals if media bothers. But there's absolutely no honesty. Corporations lie and steal. Journalists lie. Startups... well, things like astroturfing, lying to users, tricking them into doing things that are harmful to them, "growth hacking", etc. are not only tolerated but encouraged.
Call it selection bias, but I don't see much of this "culture of honesty" anywhere in the western world, and especially not in the United States.
I would argue that the very notion that cases of fraud and dishonesty make such large media headlines underscores the American culture of honesty the OP is referring to.
Brian Williams was just suspended for six months without pay for lying about a single news story more than a decade ago. From a business perspective, NBC knows their viewers won't take them seriously if they keep a potentially dishonest news anchor on the air.
I agree that fraud and otherwise unethical behavior is still pretty present in the American system, but there's at least a cultural understanding that these things are bad; this, of course, presupposes that A) you can prove that the behavior was either fraudulent or unethical, and B) that the perpetrator was caught.
>Brian Williams was just suspended for six months without pay for lying about a single news story more than a decade ago. From a business perspective, NBC knows their viewers won't take them seriously if they keep a potentially dishonest news anchor on the air.
Interesting. I see the fact that he wasn't fired and permanently publicly disgraced, unable to ever work in journalism again, as evidence that the American culture of honesty is a farce.
We signal that it's bad, but when we catch people cheating and lying, we give them a slap on the wrist. The message is, "Lie, cheat, but don't get caught. And if you do, you'll get off easy."
> American culture of honesty; fraud and cheating are national scandals, not the norm
Wait what. Fraud and cheating are sometimes national scandals if media bothers. But there's absolutely no honesty. Corporations lie and steal. Journalists lie. Startups... well, things like astroturfing, lying to users, tricking them into doing things that are harmful to them, "growth hacking", etc. are not only tolerated but encouraged.
Call it selection bias, but I don't see much of this "culture of honesty" anywhere in the western world, and especially not in the United States.