Integrity is costly, but only if you view financial loss as the sole cost, and ignore the upside of being able to live with yourself.
I'd love to believe that being honest and ethical will one day provide some kind of reward, but the reality is that it doesn't - in fact in this world you are indeed punished for it - so you just have to accept that being good is its own reward.
It's something I really struggle with - the fact that the more dishonest you are, the more willing you are to lie, cheat, steal, kill, mislead, destroy, hurt, insult, and all the rest, the more successful you will be. I've seen it over and over in business - retail magnates practically eat children for breakfast. I remember "do you employ any n-ggers" lady, who runs a major UK fashion label, and "I know we said we'd pay but what the fuck are you going to do about it, my brother's the local magistrate" with particular fondness. The worst part about the former was watching others in the business not care and still want to do the deal - I had to torpedo it, as there was no way I'd be able to work with this inhumane individual.
I mean - look at the PeOTUS - he's a shining example of what this world now holds as good. Hell, I remember posting 18 months ago about how Holmes wasn't all she seemed to be and HN calling me every shitty name under the sun (I was a misogynist, jealous, rageface, you name it), and yet now that it's the majority view that she's not all she seemed to be, that opinion is fine.
Tribes who blindly support the strong angry man, rather than the honest man. We'd rather go stick heads on poles over a yam theft than admit we didn't plant the yam in the first place. Nothing has changed.