Ethics, Massachusetts Style

I have now been certified by the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission as an Ethical Person.

The State now requires anyone with any affiliation to the government to take an on-line ethics test relating to conflicts of interest. It is a multiple choice test--25 questions. Each page has a copy of the relevant law, an ethical case and a set of possibilities. Your task is to pick the ethical choice.

And, by the way, if you get one wrong, you can just go back and pick a different answer.

The questions were quite tough. Question 1 is about bribery. It asks if you can accept a $100 bribe. The four choices are 1) Yes, if the person was close to getting the thing anyway, 2) No, you can't take $100, but you can get a free lunch from the person; 3) Yes, but only if you accept the money on a Saturday, and 4) No, bribes are illegal. I know that it isn't fair to ask you to pick the right answer without providing the relevant legal material, so the correct answer is 4.

I am not making that up. And, believe it or not, I am not exaggerating at all. That really is question 1.

I took the whole test. For most of the questions, I just read the answers and picked the right one. Sometimes I had to read the question too in order to figure out what the answers meant. And in a couple of cases I actually had to go back and read the situation because the answers and question made no sense without the context. I never had to read the description of the legal code.

So, here is my puzzle. The state just said I was ethical, but I didn't actually read all the material they obviously wanted me to read. So, is the State correct in its assessment?

Don't forget, if you live in the state of Massachusetts, your tax dollars paid for the design of that test.

Also, in the something-to-look-forward-to department--I have to take the test every two years. I think that is just in case I forget that I can't take any bribes in the next two years.

And, if you wanted something from someone on the Finance Committee in Granby, MA and were thinking about giving me a bribe--forget about it. However, after taking my test, I am pretty sure you can bribe my wife and as long as she doesn't tell me that she was bribed, she can use all of her charms and get me to do whatever it is you wanted. Since she isn't affiliated with the government, she can accept any money she wants from you. And since I am allowed to talk to my wife (at least I don't think the State has outlawed conversations with my wife), she is allowed to persuade me to do the Right Thing. So, I think we are all good.