Hoboken Resident Tells You How To Get Rich Cheating

Hey America. Isn't it frustrating that you work harder only to fall further behind? Don't you hate that the moron in the next cubicle always seems to get ahead of you? Do you find that you just don't have all the finer things in life that you deserve?

Well, there's an easy solution to settle the score: you can cheat your way to success!

That's the message espoused by award-winning satirist and Hoboken resident Jeff Kreisler in his new book Get Rich Cheating, which explores corruption through notorious examples in politics, business, entertainment and sports.

“It's about success in our society that isn't based on merit,” Kreisler told Patch.

A graduate of Princeton and the University of Virginia law school, Kreisler has written for Comedy Central, IFC and the Huffington Post, has appeared on MSNBC and Headline News and hosts a program on the Progressive Radio Network. He's also won the Bill Hicks Spirit Award for Thought Provoking Comedy.

Kreisler was writing a humorous financial column for thestreet.com when he started noticing a trend.

“Every week some CEO from a bankrupt company was getting a $40 million dollar bailout,” he said. “It seemed to be cheating.”

He found similar examples in other fields. Kreisler compiled cases from Enron bilking investors to pop singers lip-synching to ballplayers doping and duping fans into Get Rich Cheating, written like a spoof of those convincing get-rich-quick guides that stock the business and self-help shelves in bookstores. Chapter one begins by deprogramming readers' righteous notions about cheating:

“...it's not wrong, nor is it “bad,” nor will it send you to Hell. It won't. Wipe that idea right out of your head. That's just hippie talk, programmed into you by a weak culture that doesn't want you to succeed. Let me tell you, cheating is great...”

Kreisler also adapted the text into a nationally touring theatrical production presented like a seminar that evokes heavy audience participation. Kreisler portrays a smug huckster who persuades people that if they've ever cheated on a test, golf score or significant other that they're already running on the “right” path.

“It's Stephen Colbert meets Tony Robbins,” he said.

Of course Kreisler doesn't really want people to cheat, quite the opposite. But his book does probe a darker side of both human nature and American culture.

Kreisler says that though most people recognize right and wrong, they can fall prey to greed, especially in a wealthy country like the United States. While the U.S. sees less mainstream corruption than many other countries (such as traffic cops demanding bribes), Kreisler says the American ethos is uniquely suited to compel and condone high-stakes cheating.

“What's great about America is this idea of an American dream, we're taught we could be rich,” Kreisler said. “But the reality is most of us can't.”

So cheating becomes enticing. Even if people don't cheat themselves, Kreisler notes their apathy to punish others who do.

“We don't look at other people's excess because we think we're one of them,” he said.

Kreisler argues further that business interests convince politicians to stifle regulation in exchange for campaign support and other perks. He blames politicians in both parties.

"They're only thinking about themselves, not the greater good," he said.

The book often mentions the large financial firms like Lehman Brothers that took risks under relaxed oversight during the 2000's, and who later sought billions in government money to prevent bankruptcy and a total economic collapse. Kreisler fears that despite a temporary uproar nothing has changed.

“The recent financial crisis was an opportunity, but the reform passed was not as strong as it could be,” he said.

Kreisler hopes that Get Rich Cheating can help people anticipate the next opportunity. Besides performing the show in theaters, including recently at the Monroe Center for the Arts, he plans to take Get Rich Cheating to real business seminars and universities. “I want to talk to any place that should have an ethics element,” he said.

He wants to use satire to send a serious message to future business and political leaders.

“You can be funny and inform people what's going on,” he said. “But it's not just a joke.”