lies

People lie for many reason, some people lie to make money, others because they are afraid of the truth. Most people lie to make their lives simpler but by lying they make more trouble for themselves in the long run, and then they have to live with the consequences of telling whatever lie they told. While others use lies to make money from other peoples trust and by betraying that trust these people profit but normally it comes back to hurt them in the end, well if people know about them lying to make money they didn't lie well enough to not get caught.


The world doesn't know why everyone lies but people have done a lot of research and found that most people lie because they assume that whoever they are lying to will have a bad reaction to the truth. Kids find out when they are little that they can avoid punishment by lying about something bad they did and they don't have to face the consequences for what they did. This is natural for little kids to do this and at first they are very bad at lying and don't understand why they are not believed but after a while they start to get better at it and they find out how much they can get away with. Little kids also don't understand why they shouldn't lie and how it damages what people think they say later. Other People lie because they are afraid of the truth and what it would do to them and their reputations and they don't want to face the consequences of their lies.


While the consequences of lying are abundant one of the more important non-legal ones is that you betray other peoples trust in you and disrespect them in doing so. This causes people to lose trust in the person who lied, this is told to kids in the story of the “Boy Who Cried Wolf” the story of a boy who lies to townsfolk about a wolf coming to get the town's sheep and after a few times they don't come next time he cries that a wolf is there but this time there is a wolf. This story shows little kids how damaging lies can be to your reputations in a way that they can understand. Some other consequences of lying are that sometimes if you lie you can go to jail for fraud which is defined as an intentional deception made for personal gain. Another way you can get in trouble with the law for lying is called Perjury where you lie under oath whether it be written or spoken. Perjury is a big deal because it can cause people to get off for a crime they committed or even to go to jail if someone lied to protect someone else at the person being accused expense.


Some people lie not to try to hide some fact about themselves or because they don't want the truth to get out but because they are trying to make money by conning or taking advantage of people's trust. One person who is very famous for this is Frank Abagnale Jr. who before his 19th birthday had stolen over four million dollars in fraudulent checks and had impersonated a airline pilot to get free airfare for over 1000 flights on pan am airline. Frank Abagnale was sent to jail but then asked to work for the FBI in a bank fraud division for the rest of his sentence. After he served his time he started a security company and now advises fortune 500 companies on bank security. Another famous person know for his scams is Charles Ponzi the creator of the “Ponzi Scheme.” This scam pays off investors with other peoples investments. Charles Ponzi lured investors in by promising them huge returns on their money. This scam was recently used by a man named Bernie Madoff who scammed people out of billions of dollars, he was recently convicted and sent to jail for a sentence of over 150 years his release date is scheduled for November 14, 2139.


Lying only hurts the people who tell them in the long run whether it be from going to jail of people losing respect for them or never being trusted because you lied. While some people say that in certain situations it is alright to lie, it is my opinion that telling lies should be avoided as much as possible.