I know what you’re thinking? How can there be a problem with helping others? For me personally, I love helping others. I probably get my greatest joys watching other people be happy about something that I’ve done for them as opposed to being happy when people do for me. I think it’s a natural feeling, and those that have some experience helping people will most likely tell you the same. So what’s the problem? Well, the problem is that our society is built in a way that makes it hard for an average person to make it their life’s work to help people and still make an above average living.
I often think that I would love to be in a line of work that helped people all day long. I could decide to be volunteer or decide to work with some positive organizations in my community, but in order to do so I’d have to take a sizable downgrade in pay. I know, life isn’t all about money. But I’m the main provider for my family and I want us to be comfortable. Finances can be some of the most stressful parts of our day to day life, and I don’t want my family to have to think about it all the time.
There are people that are able to have both, but it seems that they are ones that have already made a substantial amount of money, and decided to spend the rest of their lives giving back. I’m no Bill Gates, but I’d still like to make a positive difference in my community. Why does helping people and making an above average living have to be mutually exclusive? It’s one of the real downsides to capitalism I’m afraid. Don’t get me wrong, I love a lot of things about capitalism. But sometimes the things that make it great also make it disappointing.
Many people are disgusted with how much professional athletes make, and in comparison how little our public school teachers make. It’s unfortunate, but that’s capitalism. Organizations can only pay their employees a reasonable percentage of what they make. Public schools don’t bring in a lot of money, therefore our teachers cannot be paid very much. Alternatively, the NFL brings in billions of dollars every year so they can afford to dish out the $100 million plus contracts here and there. Does it make sense? In the morally idealistic sense, no. In our capitalist society, yes.
In my heart, I would love to spend my life helping people. One of the big reasons I started this website is so that I can start to get closer to that dream. By trying to align work with helping people, maybe I can be one of the lucky people out there who can afford to help people and still make a nice living. It sucks that we have to choose one or the other sometimes. It does make you appreciate those that choose to live a life of service anyway, knowing that they won’t get paid much. So there it is…the problem with helping people is that we can’t do more of it. Anyway, still try to find some time to go out and do something good for someone, even if it’s for a little while.
