The Price Wristle-Blowers Pay for Secrets - Essay Example

The Price Whistle-Blowers Pay for Secrets A whistle-blower is someone who informs the government or the authority of any illegal activities going on in any government or private organization. Usually the person receives an award after disclosing such activities or some payment is demanded before he or she decides to come clean and reveal any illegal actions happening in any department. The whistle-blower program works in such a fashion that the authorities offer a reward to the person in custody to disclose any secret violation of law being or having been committed.

If the person complies, he or she is rewarded with usually an ample amount of money. For example, according to the article “Whistle-Blower Awarded $104 Million by I.R.S”, written by David Kocieniewski, Bradley C. Birkenfeld, who used to be a banker at UBS, was caught helping a rich Californian developer to avoid paying income taxes in the US. After being arrested, he informed that he would disclose important information about the Swiss banking system which would help the US government retrieve lost taxes that amounted to billions of dollars.

Many wealthy Americans had used their Swiss banks to avoid paying income tax in their country. Now the valuable information provided by the banker allowed the US government to get back a large sum of unpaid taxes from the Swiss banks. In return for this, the banker was given an award of $104 million, the highest amount ever paid to a whistle-blower. This whole idea of a person benefiting from a crime he committed is pretty ironical. A person involved in activities such as tax fraud is arrested, and when he complies with the authorities’ demands and reveals some vital information, he is rewarded.

This means that, in effect, the person is actually being paid for the crime he has committed. The irony of the situation seems amusing. If a person accused of committing several crimes asks for freedom and some monetary reward in exchange for valuable information, he or she will get it. This will allow him or her to return to his previous life and no lesson will be learnt. Moreover, it has become a norm in the society that people demand some kind of reward before they can do something helpful.

Many people realize that giving out valuable information is a great and easy way to make money, so they demand a reward before revealing any secrets even if the secrets can actually benefit their own country. The fact that many people want to be paid before doing the right thing is alarming, as it shows that the society is well down the downward path. In today’s world, people have become so obsessed with their own problems and desires that they do not have the time to think about others. Performing civic duty and paying taxes regularly has become a pain even for the wealthy; they believe that their hard-earned money should be kept for themselves and they have no role to play in the society as responsible citizens.

Therefore, many people try to evade taxes and try to keep as much as they can for themselves. As far as the question about Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is concerned and particularly which one is more honest and moral, I cannot really go in one direction. Both of them have flaws and have made mistakes in their career. Romney has been revealed to have been involved in some corruption cases during his life as a businessman, while President Obama has not really delivered the promises he made when he was elected.

The unemployment rate is high, while the USA is at a continuous war with terrorism, which does not seem to be going anywhere. Everyday a drone attack happens in rural areas of Pakistan, which kills more innocent people than targeted terrorists. Therefore, both the candidates have flaws, but as far as being honest and sticking to the rules is concerned, President Obama seems to be ahead of Mitt Romney.Works CitedKocieniewski, David. “Whistle-Blower Awarded $104 Million by I.R.S”. The New York Times. 11 Sept. 2012. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. .