10 Most Dishonest Professions in America

The land of the free and the home of the brave is based on reputable heroic vocations like firefighters, and top-class doctors and nurses, but what about most dishonest professions in America? They too exist. In fact, every successful country in the world needs to have a few of those shady professions which make things spin when that would otherwise be impossible. Whether by finding the loopholes in regulations or by directly bending the rules to their own needs, these people have received both praise and scorn time and again. Sometimes they have to do that for the higher good, but other times they are breaking the laws or exhibiting very low moral standards and ethics out of their selfish desires.

Syda Productions/Shutterstock.com

These people are often dealing with recognizable brands just like America itself is a brand for many a good and bad things at the same time. Speaking of brands, here’s a list of 10 common words you didn’t realize were brand names. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? People generally have their own perceptions of any given profession – especially if they have had the dealings with some of their representatives in the past. Media sometimes spins the public opinion in one profession’s favor or the other way around, but results can’t be hidden in the modern era where information is widely available and usually free.

We have gathered our data from Gallup. This consulting and analytic company deals with a wide range of research topics which they use as leverage when working with large companies. They have been conducting this poll of honesty and ethics for a wide range of professions since 1976. Results varied over the years, but some things have remained constant over the long periods of time. People in America never trusted politicians, but they have always had a positive opinion of firefighters, nurses, dentists, engineers, teachers, pharmacists, medical doctors and veterinarians, for instance.

We have gathered Gallup’s data in a single database and decided to use the last available year for rankings. They haven’t rated the same professions every single year, and some haven’t been rated since 2011. Those professions with highest percentages of low and very low opinions delivered by a classic Likert scale will be rated as 10 most dishonest professions in America. Given the state of the US economy, results probably won’t come as a surprise. Still, as mentioned above – some things have never really changed in both upper and lower ends of Gallup’s scales.