In the South African ghetto, Soweto, people wake up to every form of discontentment resulting from the filthy environment and the condition of the surrounding. Mr. Dean Jones had visited the area during the summer break and decided to experience how life in the slums feels. In his one week time in the ghetto, all did not go well. During this short period, he had experienced nearly every form of health hazard due pollution to the dirty environment and insensitive lifestyle. With a day to the end of his tour, he fell sick and was taken to the hospital. He had developed difficulty in breathing and that put his life at stake. Upon his recovery, several questioned crossed his mind, and he wondered; “Why is this part of the country this filthy?” with no definite answer to the rhetoric, he had realized that certain people were not responsibly doing their side of the duty to the community.
The issue to grapple with is the about whether schools and businesses should give more incentive for people to do voluntary work. It makes it sometimes unreasonable to engage in voluntary service at the expense of income generating endeavor. The daily struggles to make ends meet necessitates that people put the energy in chores that add economic value to their lives, and that would mean putting food on the table.
Schools and businesses should give more incentive to people to do voluntary work. It is important to consider various factors that necessitate voluntary service. However, the increasing need to meet other financial responsibilities makes it necessary to call for additional financial injection into voluntary services to help ease the burden on the volunteers. Regardless of the endeavor, there are clear responsibilities that people must meet. The financial aspect of life makes it necessary to demand more incentive for voluntary work (Murphy, 2011). The duty to feed the family as well as offer better care for the children remains core to the responsibilities of any individual. How would it be possible when one continually engages in voluntary service?
The reason why people should be given more incentives for voluntary work is the growing need for finance. The life becomes complicated to every family, and that requires that extra efforts are put in the right direction. Importantly, the family must keep the lifestyle that is deemed appropriate within the confines of the society thus pushing people to up their efforts. The view is that finding the equilibrium between meeting personal responsibilities and those of the community might become a deterrent factor in committing to voluntary work (Langenmayr, 2015). Therefore, it is essential for schools and businesses to consider increasing the incentives to help create the ease in engaging in voluntary service. Considering the hefty budgets that would be incurred if the voluntary services were to be subjected to actual financial valuation, it is important that every stakeholder acknowledges the sacrifices made by one another, especially the service provider to help provide service at no cost or minimal if any. It is thus important to understand the requirements of the service provider to be able to understand the need for a further appraisal.
Additionally, the degree of selfishness has shifted the desire to render voluntary service. Many people find it hard to pursue such endeavors amidst the struggles and growing selfishness in the society. Increasing the incentives will create the additional value that many people tend to be lured. As a result, they will be drawn to such commitments in the hope of getting something reasonable (Travasso, 2015). For instance, one might opt to watch football over the weekend than go to voluntary work in the neighboring school if he/she considers it of no value to their egos. In this case, it is prudent to offer an additional incentive to attract such individuals.
Moreover, there is the motivation that comes with the good package. Additional incentives would be lucrative especially when attached to a voluntary service. Many people are demotivated by the myths surrounding the funding of community services. While it remains to be totally proven that others might benefit more from the same service, the society pays so much attention to innuendoes than facts (Travasso, 2015). Consequently, it becomes extremely difficult to convince certain quarters of the community that they should offer free service. Many have been made to believe that such services are benefiting a few individuals who equally use them to achieve their selfish gains.
On the other hand, proponents of voluntary service argue that adding more incentives would be an injustice to the word voluntary. Adding incentives would thwart the moral aspect of communism (TNS, 2015). They assert that it is critical for all the parties to acknowledge that giving back to the community should be the responsibility of every member thus does not necessarily package to be executed. The arguments are to some extent justifiable. However, they are not taking into consideration the changing economic situation that makes every opportunity to inject cash hard to forgo.
In conclusion, many people might deem it inappropriate to attach material interest to voluntary services, but it is paramount to consider the certain economic demands that every person has. When the economic factors are put into consideration, it becomes apparent that schools and businesses should add more incentives for people to do voluntary work.
References
Langenmayr, D. (2015). Voluntary disclosure of evaded taxes — Increasing revenue, or increasing incentives to evade? Journal of Public Economics.
Murphy, J. E. (2011). Using Incentives in Your Compliance and Ethics Program. Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, 13.
TNS. (2015). Understanding the m otivators and incentives for voluntary disclosure. HM Revenue & Customs Research Report 397, 25-42. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/457629/Understanding_the_motivators_and_incentives_for_voluntary_disclosure.pdf.
Travasso, C. (2015). Incentives could help delivery of essential health services by frontline workers, study finds. Bmj, 350.
