Charitable Acts
Charitable Acts The idea of giving rewards to people who exhibit charitable acts is a very popular idea. Some schools offer incentives, such as extra credit, in order to get the students to do service to the community. Tax reductions are even given to people who donate money or service to charitable organizations. The practice of offering incentives for charitable acts is unethical because it undermines the value of charity as being a selfless act. Schools that require students to do community service in order to graduate or get a good grade make students less likely to actually do good service to their community. Kids who are forced into doing a “selfless” act do not perform with as much enthusiasm and effort as kids who do the act without having been forced to. These kids who are forced to give service to their community tend to look for the easiest things to do; the things that usually matter a lot less than the more difficult ways to help out the community. I have also seen kids who are required to do community service to graduate go out and do a couple of hours of decent service and then when they go to turn in their form to the school they lie about the amount of hours they worked. This totally sends a morally wrong message to kids and turns what is supposed to be a selfless act into a selfish act. Public television stations that offer incentives for charitable donations mask the real meaning of giving. The people who give money to an organization in return for enticements are doing no more of a selfless act than someone shopping for themselves at the mall. Charitable acts should be considered giving without receiving, instead of giving and receiving benefits because of this act. The government gives tax deductions to citizens who donate to charity organizations. Yes, this is a good way to get more people to give back to those in need, but it negatively affects the morality of charitable acts. People should be willing to donate without