The Price of the Prize

In many instances, people will not have the motivation or incentive to benefit a charity unless they get something out of it. Most people believe this to be a selfish act. Why can't someone do something nice for the community and not expect anything in return? Offering incentives for charitable acts is a easy way to bribe people, but sends a morally wrong and selfish message.

Bartel (1976) defines prosocial behaviour as ‘behaviour that intentionally helps or benefits another person’. Batson (1987) defines altruism as ‘helping another person for no reward, and even at some cost to oneself.’ This definition of altruism seemingly depicts the behaviour as selfless, however there is a wealth of research which suggests that this is not the case.

Ethos, Logos, Pathos “Just like grownups, kids need different kinds of incentives to get through the day, some highbrow and some low, some short-term, some longer-term”-Roland Fryer, economics teacher at Harvard. A teacher at one of the best education institutions in the world believes that an incentive is necessary to motivate them. Young adults should be rewarded for good grades by money because they prefer it to other incentives, money can be used to purchase educational necessities, and it provides another positive to the stressful life of a teenager. Money should be given to good students because they prefer it when compared to other rewards. “If I was paid for good grades, I would work harder at school”- A survey participant who agreed

Some kids may get stressed due to their grades, and knowing they will be remunerated for all their hard work will make them feel better. For example, I don't get an allowance so sometimes it is difficult paying for my needs. I don't always get good grades, but if I acknowledged that I would get remunerated for all my hard work, I would work harder, and never give up.

The general argument made by Arianna Prothero in her work, “Does Paying Kids to Do Well Actually Work,” is that incentives may help boost students to come to school and learn so they may earn a further education. More specifically, Arianna believes that financial incentives have a huge impact on students rather than little rewards. She writes “Incentives are also more likely to work for students who need a little improvement to earn a passing grade.” Schools that use incentives have a better chance of teaching more kids as well as more of them learning what they really need to at school; new material.

School is slave labor. Rather than enjoying or learning from their classes, students are forced to do useless work that will often be forgotten immediately. Grades are meant to show much a student understands a class, but instead are used as a scale of how well a student can regurgitate answers onto a test. Students only work for good grades because of the threat of being punished for failure, and the promise of reward for passing. The punishments in this case are detention or trouble from teachers, and the rewards are making the honor roll or getting bragging rights. The real reward for learning should be having new knowledge, but this is not taken into consideration. Jerry Farber, a professor at U.S.D, made the strong claim that grades are useless and harmful in his essay, “A Young Person’s Guide to the Grading System.” I wholeheartedly agree with Farber’s objection to our current grading system.

Altruism, also known as selflessness, is one of the most puzzling topics in the public domain today. The main issue from the perspective of many scholars is how altruism can be effective. Even though many people get involved in lifelong altruism, only a few of them emerge to be effective in it. What could be the reason behind this? And what makes altruism such a common issue that everyone needs to engage in it? The producer, Peter Singer, puts on important points that give more light on the urgency of the altruism to the younger generation and how to make it effective in the long run.

Would students be able to improve their grades if they were getting paid? Money is a great reward for most students and it could possibly have a long term effect on students. They are always wanting their grades to be improved and then they would have more of a reason to study for test and quizzes if they were getting paid do go to school. Students would be focused at school if their was money to be made by going to school. Teachers would also not be stopping as often because of students getting of track. I believe students would improve their grades if they were getting paid because, Money could have a long term effect, and more student could need a little more motivation

Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, a French novelist who went by the pseudonym George Sand, claims “charity degrades those who receive it and hardens those who dispense it.” Those who give to others solely believe they are helping for the greater good. While those receiving more or less don’t reciprocate the same gratitude. It comes from human nature to believe deep down to help others less fortunate than one. Generosity spreads to those in need creates gratitude for those who dispense.

Modern Culture instills a misguided perception of why charitable acts are performed. In Alfie Kohn’s article, “ The Wrong Way to Get People to Do the Right Thing,” the author uses research evidence, from newspaper articles, to explain his thesis that rewards and praise promotes charitable acts. This article exposes the sad truth behind the natural tendency for human generosity.

Next, Szalavitz bolsters her previous statement that people can benefit from selfless acts by presenting statistics and facts discovered by a study from BMC Public Health. To give the reader a sense of reality, Szalavitz offers a reminder that genuine and regular benevolence is required to reap such rewards. Next, she mentions a few more health benefits that one can acquire from helping others before describing the harm it can incur. Szalavitz continues her argument by describing a more general danger of benevolence and recognizes the limited verification of the research findings. She concludes the article with statistics of how people are being encouraged to volunteer around the world and establishes the purpose of helping others in the first

I know from other experiences that volunteers really make a difference in people’s lives. Volunteering is something that everyone should want to do, and the benefits are a great part too. I have learned through my church family different ways to feel “needed” on this earth, and one of those ways is to help others. I have learned about Karma, within the last couple of years, and I truly believe in it. What goes around, comes around. So I think that if you are only putting good deeds out there, then eventually someone something will do good deeds in

Pay It Forward, a story written by Catherine Ryan Hyde, recounts the history of a fictional phenomenon known as paying it forward. This movement begun as a boy’s answer to his teacher extra credit assignment. To provide a solution to improve the world as the question request, a boy named Trevor devised a program with a goal of spreading altruistic actions. The plan begins with a person doing a meaningful favor to three people. Instead of having those individuals paying back the favor, they would “pay it forward” and help three other people each. As it is expected for each recipients to continue the cycle, it is believe that eventually this would create a global system of good deeds to the point where everyone can receive a favor, even the one

First, kids may not have good grades. Personally, I know a bunch of people with no A’s or B’s, or have a 2.5 gpa or lower. What would those kids get paid? Nothing? Either kids should be paid, good grades or not, or nobody should be paid at all. It’s really not fair to the kids with poor parents, or the kids who don’t get good grades. Also, what happens when the reward is no longer

In today’s world, many charitable acts have incentives that are sometimes used to “praise” its participants.These charitable acts can compose of simply volunteering for events that need help or donating money to an organization that needs the money. However, are these incentives really justified? Charitable acts are mainly supposed to be composed of altruistic acts people do mainly because they want to, not because they will get rewarded for them. Nevertheless, people put a particular twist in these kind-hearted acts to make them sometimes competitive, or prize bearing; therefore taking out the “selfless” meaning behind charitable acts. Is this really a good idea? Is the implacement of incentives really a requirement to have people participate