Ethical standards in general in the United States have slipped in recent years. So when 30 percent of high school students in a recent survey said they’ve stolen something in the last year, it’s not surprising.

But what is shocking is that 93 percent said they were satisfied with their personal ethics.

You would expect a little more contrition on students’ part, but that, too, is probably part of the decline of ethics in this country.

Corruption and public financial, political and sexual indiscretion have marked the last couple of decades in American politics. Two presidents in the last 25 years made false claims that they later had to apologize to the nation for. Several congressmen have been indicted or had to resign because of corruption charges or ethical lapses.

The financial collapses of WorldCom and Enron were rooted in corporate greed and cooking the books. In response to the survey, educators were reluctant to say that students were any more dishonest than students of other eras.

Still it would seem that when cheating, stealing and lying occur among those who have positions of responsibility in our society, that would have an effect on young people.

So it’s noteworthy that the study by the Josephson Institute also found 64 percent of students said they cheated on a test and 36 percent plagiarized a paper from the Internet.

Everyone is tempted to cheat, but it makes sense that more people will give in to that temptation when they know that many others are cheating and many are getting away with it.