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 ...