Who wants to be a millionaire? I'd think nearly everyone, save Buddhists, minimalists, and billionaires. The question is, what price are we willing to pay to get there? Some get caught up in the rat race, some steal and ransack, but most never quite make it to that 6th zero. Charles Ingram was desperate as any to make a bit of money, and when he was called up as a contestant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? he saw his opportunity. Charles Ingram is by no means incompetent. He's clearly experienced in playing the system, as he develops a system with one Tecwen Whittock, another contestant, to cheat on the show and win the million dollars. He's quickly found out, however, as his system is almost comical to behold.
Here's the first part right at your fingertips. Should you decide you're interested, the rest are linked below.
Still, both Tecwen Whittock and Charles Ingram remind us of a societal flaw that seems to pervade more and more with time. Cheaters seem to prosper. In their case, they were discovered, but in countless insurance fraud instances across the nation every year, people are able to get away with murder, nobody the wiser (in fact, over 30% of murders in the U.S. went unsolved in 2012). Charles Ingram didn't seem to be heard from much afterwards, but did receive some sort of comeuppance referenced at the end of the documentary. Still, justice didn't seem to be the focus of this documentary. It only seemed to further the point that, if done correctly, cheating can be highly beneficial. Others may learn from his mistakes and, as time goes on, there's no telling how cheating might involve, for just as the technology to prevent it advances, the same advancements can be used to break it.
Do cheaters receive more than just a slap on the wrist? More often than not, yes. But they must be caught first, and in that condition lies a great failure of our system--we either ignore cheating when it occurs right before our eyes, or are unable to recognize it before it escalates.
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