YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

1) your own personal ethics, and 2) the fact that being caught, especially in a college environment, has consequences.

I think the solution to this is...classes have homework assignments throughout the semesters, but your final paper is one that you write in class. And it's like 50% of your grade. The purpose of the homework assignments throughout the semester is to prepare for the final. If you ace the final, even having paid for essays - then congrats you were able to learn.

Cheating is too easy now. There's a website where you can get solutions manual for free. I've even seen websites that give solutions to Kumon homeowork. For those who don't know Kumon - it's an after school curriculum to help kids develop academically, to get to grade level if they are behind, of to accelerate ahead even further if they are already ahead. What's the point of cheating on those...

When I was in high school in the late 90's, babelfish had come out and kids were cheating on their Spanish homework because it would spit out poor Spanish. Now with the gig economy I'm sure you can scan your homework, upload it and a native Spanish speaker would give you the perfect translation. I remember reading that adjunct professors writing essays to supplement their dirt poor income.

As far as YouTube Stars getting paid to advertise...meh.

> Not if they don't apply to jobs

This does not apply to the majority of students going to college. Why should a tiny fraction of students be able to drag down the reputation of a college because they do not want to do the work that they signed up to do, paid tuition to be taught how to do, and signed a contract saying that they would honestly complete to the best of their abilities?

> You can't assess that by talking to someone during an interview?

It is not possible to assess someone's ability to do a long form research report doing a 1 hour in person interview. I have actually seen some companies that do have candidate screening processes that involve independent research work, but that is aside the point[1]. The real point here is that there is a centralized system that is designed to teach, and validate, academic credentials. They are called colleges!

> Agreed. That's a matter for when the person is applying to jobs.

It is a matter for colleges to worry about because they are in the business of bestowing credentials backed up by the colleges reputation for doing a good job educating their students. If too many students have a degree from a college but they do not actually know anything, then degrees in general from that college become devalued and it cheats the students who put in all the work legitimately!

> If he just gets the degree and becomes a trust fund kid for the rest of his life, who is being harmed?

Reputable colleges and universities are not day cares for trust fund kids. There are plenty of less reputable colleges that serve that purpose.

[1] Such longer interview processes put more burden, which can be measured economically, on both the applicant and the hiring company. The applicant has already paid a fee to go through a skill assessment process, their college tuition. It is possible to model cheaters as an economic drain on both employers and job applicants. Cheating is not free, it has a real cost to it as companies have to implement additional testing and applicants have to spend their time (which always has a monetary trade off) going through screening that is redundant to the credentials they already have.

>We only think it is a moral issue because it's been drilled into us since we were kids

Dishonesty has long been considered a moral issue, e.g., Kant.

In my view, cheating extends beyond academia when you claim to have an education that you didn't receive.

It does devalue the degree, and it does impose costs on those who don't cheat, by making it harder for them to establish their own credentials.

I don't know a clear distinction between "accomplish and explain" and "write answers" for academic study.

Employers are using other methods, such as personality tests, coding interviews, work-for-free exercises, requiring "experience" for entry level jobs, and so forth.

Employers could abolish that system overnight by simply eliminating the degree requirement. They could reduce their labor costs, because a person with no college debt might be willing to start out at a lower salary and be more loyal to their initial employer.