re: Getting paid "under-the-table"

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because the income tax is, to a large extent, self-reported.

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Are you referring to the OP or to the average taxpayer?

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The argument about the toddler is a red herring. I have no idea what you're talking about, but I assume it has something to do with a risk that helping the toddler would get you in trouble with the secret police or something. Obviously moral values are not some absolute trump card that overrides every other potential incentive, and the risk of getting in trouble with the Party is a serious incentive indeed. But those moral values are part of the equation, more, I think, than you're giving them credit for.

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It's not a red herring - it's exactly applicable. It's very easy to morally grandstand when the cost of being "immoral" is very high (in some cases in this country you can make money off the "moral" action as you can perhaps cash in on 15 minutes of Good Samaritan fame).

What you are saying is more true for acts inflicted directly on specific individuals. And I mostly agree with you. But not paying taxes is viewed in a different light by most people because the "victim" is much more nebulous than one guy who had his money stolen from him. That's why the Madoff example isn't comparable to even the shoplifting example that was proffered.