How Has Public Service Impacted Society

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Public Service is an act that provides skills to a marginalized group, or a group that could not otherwise meet certain needs. An act of public service is community driven and must serve the interests of society overall by providing inclusivity and engagement to all members of society. Finally, to qualify as public service, the work provided must benefit others, rather than cause harm. “Public service” means different things to different people, but the words alone provide a starting point for defining the meaning of the phrase. The term “service” can be used to define work that one person does for another, whether that work is paid or unpaid. A person who cooks food at McDonald’s is performing a service, as are the first responders on …show more content…

To provide equity, public servants must act in one of two ways to positively impact society. First, they must meet a need that cannot be met by those who require a service. This qualification separates emergency medical technicians from McDonald’s workers. Emergency workers provide their technical skills for someone who lacks the knowledge or ability to perform that service alone. People can already access and buy food that has been prepared, so there is not an unmet need. In addition, the McDonald’s worker does not impact the greater good through service alone. Second, public service may require meeting the needs of marginalized populations. The provision of food from a food kitchen to hungry families could be considered a public service, because it engages the community in providing for a group that would not otherwise have access to these resources. Marginalized groups can be defined as the groups within a community that are underrepresented, minority groups, or who have a need that they cannot meet without outside …show more content…

An act can be defined as public service only if it has a positive and lasting impact. If the project causes more harm than good, then the project does not qualify as public service. If a developer enters into a community and attempts to renovate a historic building, but accidentally destroys the foundation instead, she has not benefitted the community in a lasting way, and actually has done more harm than good, meaning her actions were not public service. This qualification helps provide a more objective assessment of public service. A person may consider his or her actions to be in the interest of the public, but if these actions actually cause significant harm, then the actions cannot be considered public service. This qualification also helps provide a means of determining whether something is an act of public service by removing motive from the effects of the action. Hitler could claim he was doing an act of public service in the interest of the common good, but because he killed millions of people, especially targeting marginalized groups, his act cannot be considered public

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