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The importance of generosity for community
Offering incentives for charitable acts
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Anne Frank once said, " No one has ever become poor by giving." Studies show giving to the poor most likely will make you, The poor , and the people around you feel happy and experience a warm glow in their life and will be happy longer than non-giving people. Giving can come in many shapes and forms. Giving in any different way can make a happier place. When giving to the poor good results will most likely come out. A very high percentage of people have said that after giving everyone involved felt happy about what they did. not only can giving make you happy in one way but it can also make you feel happy about yourself in many other ways. Muhammad Ali once stated, " Service to others is your rent you pay for your room here on Earth."
There are many examples of this in the book. The first example of this is at the truck station in chapter 15 when the restaurant owner and waitress give the family bread at a discounted rate, and candy two for a penny when it is actually nickel candy. The truck drivers then leave large tips to the waitress. Neither the truck driver nor the restaurant owner and waitress are very rich but they are generous anyway. In chapter seventeen the person at the car dump gives Tom and Al things for way discounted rates. Ma Joad is also an example of this. The Joads are poor and yet they give what little they have to the children who need it. They also stay and help the Wilsons when it just slowed them down. Another example is when the small land owner that Tom first gets work warns them of the plot of the Farmer's Association to raid the government camp. The clerk in the company store in chapter twenty-four is also generous, lending Ma ten cents so that she can get sugar for the coffee.
Even forms of human beings preforming selfless acts derives from ones desire to help others, which in a way makes that person feel importance. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, better known as Mother Teresa, devoted her life to helping those in great need. To many these acts may appear as selfless and gallant acts that are not performed by anyone with any type of ego. Yet when taking a psychological look at why she performed such acts they may appear a somewhat more for herself. Every time anyone does anything, even when for someone else, they are doing it for some type of feeling that they experience. With the holiday season approaching, there will be a specific emphasis on giving unlike any other time of the year. We give yes to show gratitude for someone we love, but also to experience the joy in seeing someone enjoy something they them self-caused. Even while being selfless humans have the unique ability to still be doing something that involves caring for them self. This outlook toward the human condition completely debunks Wolf’s claim that “when caring about yourself you are living as if you are the center of the universe.” When choosing to do anything positive or negative, for others or for yourself, you are still taking your self-interest into consideration, making it
For instance, last year, I volunteered at an organization to take care of kids and help them with their homework. One day, I worked with a kid who was 5 years old. I helped him with his math homework and taught him how to add and subtract. I taught him patiently and carefully. After we were done, the kid learned how to add and subtract, and he told his mom what he learned. Then the kid’s mom came to me and said “Thank you” with a smile directed to me. At that time, I felt really happy, valuable, and helpful. This kind of happiness was different than the other happiness because this happiness came from helping others. When I feel happy, I am more willing to help. I am so proud that I made a good decision because I have found out the true significance of volunteering.
Since I spoke about rich people, I should talk about poor people. I feel compassion, admiration, and generous when it comes to poor people. I feel they have a rough life but always tend to put on a smile and look happy. I always want to be kind and friendly to poor people and make them feel like they have a friend who will help and support them if needed. I think poor people are kind and generous. I previously said that rich people are stingy about their money, but poor people are the exact opposite. Even though they lack mone...
Most people feel that they should help the needy in some way or another. The problem is how to help them. This problem generally arises when there is a person sitting on the side of the road in battered clothes with a cardboard sign asking for some form of help, almost always in the form of money. Yet something makes the giver uneasy. What will they do with this money? Do they need this money? Will it really help them? The truth of the matter is, it won't. However, there are things that can be done to help the needy. Giving money to a reliable foundation will help the helpless, something that transferring money from a pocket to a man's tin can will never do.
There is a saying that suggest “A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money”. So often people are judged for the amount of money they have or for the materialistic things that they may or may not have. We see charity’s and fundraisers daily raising money to help not only the poor but it some cases it could be the rich. Most people often say the rich stay rich because they do not want to give up their money to help with the poor. In “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor” by: Garrett Hardin and “A Modest Proposal” by: Jonathan Swift their views on the rich helping the poor are vastly different due to personal experiences, logic, and ultimately everyday life.
According to the article, Altruism and helping behavior, it is common for people to help others. Altruism is defined as “the desire to help another person even if it doesn’t benefit the helper” (Altruism and Helping Behavior. Print.). Helping behavior is “any act that is intended to benefit another person”
Humanity has existed for hundreds of thousands of years. Perhaps the greatest goal in life is to achieve happiness, which is best defined by the positive and pleasant feelings associated with a mental state being well. There is even a religion, Buddhism, dedicated to achieving true happiness through Nirvana. One of the principles of Buddhism is to assist others. This is due to the fact that helping others yields a sense of accomplishment, raises one’s self-esteem and helps build stable communities, which helps one achieve the path of Nirvana, and is the only path to happiness. Consequently, our achievements must indeed benefit others in order for us to become truly happy.
This sentiment may sound like a paradox at first, but can be easily explained. America, notoriously known around the world as a nation of people who are hedonistic, curiously stands as the most philanthropic nation in the world. In a study published by the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers found that people are more likely to give when they think it will make them feel better. When one sees a commercial with an orphaned child, he or she may donate to a cause that helps the child find a loving home (5 ways Giving is good). Although seeing or hearing about suffering children may make one uncomfortable, that distress isn’t driving them to dig into their pockets and donate. Instead, donations flow forth when people feel hope about putting smiles on suffering faces. That feeling of hope, or similar euphoric sensations, are driven by the brain‘s reward systems. Researchers studied why people tend to donate more when they are happy and the astounding conclusion shows that giving releases endorphins (Why Giving Makes You Happy). Endorphins are groups of hormones secreted within the brain and nervous system that activate the body’s opiate receptors, causing an analgesic, or healing effect (Skoglund, Andrea). These endorphins also reduce the stress hormones that cause unhappiness as well as promote an addictive feeling of exhilaration throughout the body. This “Helper’s high” produces a mild version of
This in turn can help the other person in more ways than just what the person is giving them. This would be like giving them the tools needed to eat and not just giving them the food. This can improve their confidence and they will feel better about themselves. A handout is much different than a hand up and has a less meaningful impact on the individual receiving the gift. A handout may help someone for a short period of time but in the long run they will just continuously need handouts. Giving someone a handout does not give them any tools to better themselves and it will not give the individual any sense of self fulfilment. This would be like giving someone a fish instead of a fishing pole. When the fish gets eaten then they will have to work to catch another fish. This is not only getting them a larger supply of food but it is also giving them self confidence and the feeling of providing for themselves. Numerous people in todays society truly believe that giving items like food and water to people in developing countries will help the countries improve. Sure, this may help them for a short period of time but it will never help them move past the hard economic times. A more realistic solution to
If we open our lives and give service to those less fortunate than ourselves, we allow our hearts to receive immeasurable happiness. When we sacrifice our time to help someone in need, whether it is a great or small need, we become a part of their life and can help alleviate heavy burdens. Making time to help people in need creates opportunities for us to develop new and lasting relationships. Serving our fellowmen allows the best in each of us to shine through and we can become examples to our children.
For instance, it was an extremely sunny day in Ghana, West Africa, and I had gone out to the well to fetch water. It was while carrying the bucket of water on my way back that I noticed my neighbor’s children fighting over the insufficient amount of food that they had to share. My family and I were not rich but from what I saw, I knew that we were better off than other people I knew. I carried the bucket of water inside the house and came back outside to call the two youngest children that were fighting over the last grain of food. I shared my food my food with them and though it was not sufficient for all, feeding the younger ones alone was better than not helping any one of them at all. There was only little that I could possibly do but by sharing, I had helped them in a great way, even if it was just for the time being.
Anne Frank once said “No one has ever become poor by giving.” Giving to the homeless helps everyone because giving not only helps others but it helps you. Whenever you give to the homeless or anyone it gives them hope that they might have a better future. “We are all here on Earth to help others.” Said W. H. Auden. 98.4% of households give to the homeless/charity. That’s great! But, there are many people that don’t have as much as they need.
...esult, the more directly one sees their personal efforts impact someone else, the more happiness one can gain from the experience of giving. Sometimes generosity requires pushing past a feeling of reluctance because people all instinctively want to keep good things for themselves, but once one is over this feeling, they will feel satisfaction in knowing that they have made a difference in someone else’s life. However, if one lives without generosity but is not selfish, they can still have pleasure from other virtues.
It's not about giving people things, but more so about one’s daily gestures and what one says to everyone each day. Being kind might be tough at times but in the end avoiding a rude comment is much better than saying one. There are so many ways to show others that being kind is important so don’t be afraid to try some out. Looking into it further, if everyone in the world was kind, we could avoid conflicts from small fights on the streets to world wars because everyone would be able to communicate and compromise with one another in a civilized