Doing things for others versus doing things for yourself

It feels like the idea of charity would always vary depending on the person since nowadays the supposedly simple act of charity could always have some underlying intent to it. Either in the hopes of a give and take kind of thing for the distant or near futures of the people involved or merely just for self satisfaction and a reputation boost. But then there are people in this community who are really appreciative of contents and it comes off as a sort of payment for entertainment and information and not charity? Or it seems I'm just too pessimistic

We do things for the benefit of others for two reasons (or actually one): so put our conscious at sleep/rest and make us feel better (even if we cannot afford it to help others).

Why do we help? Because we are raised to do so and we are told for decades it is good to help and selfish not to give a hand. Because we are manipulated.

Interesting is that more poor people are willing to help than rich. The rich, successful people say NO. They invest and if they give they don't really give. They promote themselves (a selfish deed) and the high amount given means they do not need to pay taxes (very selfish deed).

The poor who give because they know how it is, they hope to be rewarded for it too (do the same for me please, going to heaven) which makes it a selfish deed as well.

Scammers know exactly how to manipulate people with their feelings. Good subjects are starting about illness, God, pathetic stories, hungry, sick children (no one opens his wallet for a hungry, sick 90-year-old woman), stories of losers who blame their terrible childhood for it, children (my children are hungry you are a mother too), saying you don't ask for support or money just want to tell your story (yes, you do ask for money otherwise you wouldn't start about it).

In this article you used everything to manipulate people by starting about communism, being selfish, you rub it in so people will feel miserable if they do not support you. Scammers do it in a way more aggressive way if you refuse you get the bullshit stories and holdings (after the pitiful one's and you are such a warm-hearted person) you are a bitch, do not know how it is to live their life, and so on.

What is different in communism is no one owns something or we all own it together, for sure that changes the attitude. You do not fill one person's wallet while you can still not pay your bills after ten hours of work a day.

I do not live in a communist country but I pay a very high amount of taxes. This money is mainly used for social security and all kinds of charities and donations I do not agree with. It's used for people not willing to work because it's easier to beg and scam. I do not see the need to give to those big charity organizations because they are already extremely rich and use it for big bonuses, sex parties, an advertisement, and if only a very small amount will end up at its goal. If I see how spoiled many are who can get many things for free, while they never invested or will invest in the community I do not feel the intention to help. Why should a lazy person, a scammer, and a thief be rewarded? Why should I feel pity (no one feels pity for me and you don't know how hard my life is)?

It doesn't make me feel good to give to others while I end up in misery and can hardly buy what my children need, some food. I am one of those few people willing to give up on luxury like a fridge, television, etc to reduce the costs of living. I sit literally in an ice-cold house during winters but no one feels pity for me? How come? I know the answer but do you?

I can not figure out what the difference is between this platform and others, platforms like Steemit, Hive, Upptrend, Publish0x, etc and I don't think we need to undergo a shift. Neither would you. If you meant that you wouldn't accept sponsors to benefit you.

Your article gives me a dirty taste in my mouth. You are doing well here and you are telling the poor bastards to change, not be so greedy and donate (because they will be rewarded for it). We both know it won't happen, the only one who will get rich is the smart guy preaching, something we see in communism too.

Life isn't fair and if being greedy was seen as a skill more people who set goals and tried to achieve them instead of waiting, hoping, praying for help. No successful person let manipulate himself by the words "greedy" and "selfishness". In my opinion, you can only give with your heart and feel happy about it in the long term if you don't need it yourself. If this is not the case only bitterness and hate against abusers and manipulators will be left and this will not do any society well. People should be rewarded for their work, affords, the will to improve, in real life and here. Perhaps they are not as smart as you but that doesn't mean they can not grow or do this platform good if you help them.

There's nothing wrong with greed, envy, and being selfish. In fact, this is exactly what nature gives animals, humans included, to survive! These are skills which should be used to give yourself and those you are responsible for a way to survive, a better life. In reality, people get punished for it in the name of religion or organizations who both don't live by what they are preaching, and the will to survive is gone. Poverty increases, depressions do and people are in big crises because they never learned to invest in themselves first. Shrinks might be happy with it, some governments are, scammers can be but for sure this behavior is not healthy.

I tried to figure out what exactly you want to say in your article. Your opinion seems to change every few sentences but I think your main message is:

"You can send small tips to people for brightening your day" an interesting word choice...

This is an interesting article, but we must understand that without greed or doing things for yourself you can not actually know how to support others. We must need to school ourselves about greed or helping oneself in the proper sense before we can be able to extend a helping hand to others. Greed or being selfish in this context means the time to develop and train oneself properly to attain some success in other to be value and relevant to yourself and the society. A person who keeps himself from others to have time to have time to undergo important training in life can be called a selfish person. Yet what what he is doing is for the benefits of the society at the long run. Generosity start from being selfish, if you don't have, you cannot give. If you are not made, you cannot make others. So most focus on doing things for themselves not because they don't want to do for others, but because they want train themselves to make meaningful impact on others. I hope am making a point here

"incentivizing individual success generally benefits the rest of the community as well"

I agree with you completely. I used to own a survey site where I would incentivize people around the world to complete surveys, and in return they were able to earn extra income for themselves and their families, while the advertising company benefits from analysing the surveys for themselves and others. I believe incentivizing others is very important to helping others. In regards to tipping someone for what they say or do is also very important, especially if it's something you appreciate it or benefit from, or see others can benefit from. I enjoy supporting those that want to make a difference in the world and help others.

You have written a very thought provoking article and I appreciate the sentiment.

The point regarding communism not working for the good of the many while capitalism does, is somewhat historically problematic. In reality there has only been one true marxist/communist workers revolution; this being the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Practically all other communist states were established through coups and military actions. However even the Russian Revolution moved away from communism very quickly. Leninism/Stalinism rapidly showed it true colours as a system of a few opposing their will on the many. Plenty much what we find within the capitalist system.

But all that said and to quote Star Trek: "The needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few". As human beings with a head, a heart and a soul, we have a obligation to help each other when we need it. We have all had moments in our lives when the kindness of another has made all the difference.

Imagine combining "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" with the philosophy of 'Pay it Forward'. If each of us try merely to apply this just 5% more in our lives what a difference world we would live in.

A dreamer I may be but some dreams are worth all the money in the world and it means you are getting a good nights sleep if nothing else.

However, as for your points regarding read.cash, then I could not agree with you more and I wish you and read.cash every success. A community where you and I can share ideas and opinions like this is a great and wonderful thing. May it long continue.

Thank you again for a wonderfully stimulating article.

Molecules makes up of cells. Cells makes up organs. Organs is composed of a human. Humans makes up a family. Families makes up a community. Communities makes up a nation. A nation is makes up a whole species of humans. Earth is among the planets. Planets makes up universe. Now tell me if anyone of you get the whole idea. Because seeing it as a whole will make you care for all. A small figment is composed of a whole structure. Tipping, charity, when you give to others, you give to yourself also, because you are part of the whole structure. We are all connected.

When you like to do thing for other, you are also doing it for you, so you don't have to choose between your two statements ;) Still liking to read your thoughs, thanks for sharing them.

I might disagree with you slightly. I think the Western society is where it is (in the good sense) exactly because of greed. Some greedy manufacturer wanted money so badly that he really had to be attuned to the market needs :) I mean Apple is hugely successful, but it's definitely damn greedy. I mean look at their prices. Yet, they are successful and they (ironically) make a world a better place (like, read.cash is developed 100% on Mac devices, not because we're Apple fanboys, but because Macs work damn well for the purposes of development, even if they are crazily expensive). So, Apple's greed means they want to sell stuff badly, so they make devices so good you can't ignore them. But they haven't donated a single iPhone 4 to development of read.cash.

Bitcoin Cash is successful (well, as much as it is), because of greed of miners. They act selfishly every time (look at the block times oscillations), yet we benefit.

One more thought in the same direction. A guy writes he has hit $100k/year on GitHub Sponsors, which is kind of like "donate" button, so people donate a ton of money, right? But read his post more carefully and you'll see he didn't hit it big until he started offering video tutorials to sponsors who pay >$14/month. Why did those people pay? Because they wanted to learn the technology, not because they wanted to support him. They wanted to solve their own problem.

Why does MarcDeMesel donate? He wants to change the world, for sure, but he also probably wants to see his holdings go up in price.

Do people donate if they are guaranteed that they will be anonymous? Not that much, probably. They donate for others to see that they are charitable (again, own interest mostly). I don't say this is the reason for 100% of cases, but I think it's somewhere close. Acting simply selfishly is more of a exception than a rule.

I agree with you that it's a pity that we as a society didn't develop the need to help others as much as we want to help ourselves, but I think fighting the whole culture is way too big of a fight for us.

So, I still think that greed is the engine and we need to use it :) I think relying on good faith and charity is what got honest.cash/yours.org to stagnate. ...and I think we have a few ideas up our sleeves on how to exploit it creatively :)

We must know when, where, and to whom we should be selfless and selfish.

Being selfless is like here in read.cash, we give upvotes and tips to other people without expecting something in return. You don't earned any material benefit from being selfless, but you know within yourself that you made that author, smile. You earned the emotional benefit.

And for being selfish, it is not really about putting yourself first before others, it's about, who deserve to get tipped and upvoted and you give value to your credibility as a curator as well.

You have got some logic that I find positive for well being!

We are living for ourselves and doing things for the sake of our well-being because the working mechanisms in our lives are designed for this purpose. Sometimes the paradigms restrict your freedom within the limits served by themselves. I found all these thing natural and ordinary.

In terms of Read.Cash, we are creating a subculture. Being the pioneers of this movement, we are allocating our times for this platform to make it better, more attractive and more engaged. Our traits and mindsets will create new paths for this highly young platform. We are ellaborating, sharing, caring and learning. I hope things will always be good for all of us.

For this post, I owe thanks to you.
Regards,

Yes I agree with this , and also when im reading the comments here it's like an articles its so long 😍 I wish I could easily type that long comments too , but I can't .

Sound good to know about that thank u

In Galatians 5:13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh ; rather, serve one another humbly in love. Meaning your putting the interests of others above your own but never neglect about yourselves. You've probably seen some variation of these words. And being of service to something means that you've chosen to engage without expectation of reciprocation...

I guess it's because we're not built to sacrifice ourselves for the benefit of others, especially if it isn't on a voluntary basis.

I would just change "especially if" to "when", then it makes much more sense to me .. I don't believe ANYONE likes being told what to do, but as a society we MUST learn (discover how) to "encourage" good behavior (on a voluntary basis), as there are MANY in dire need of help from those that can certainly do much more..

You have tried