Benjamin Mao

Pd.6
3/14/14
Ethicist Essay
The greatest modern physicist who ever lived, Albert Einstein, once said, If people are
good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
Charity is supposed to be about helping others in need without any expectation of a reward.
Some say that dangling a reward as an incentive for performing selfless acts increases the
number of people who do so. Others counter that while more people are performing selfless acts,
they merely do so for the reward and not out of the goodness of their hearts. Rewards for selfless
acts increases gluttony on the part of the accepters and ought to be done away with.
History testifies to the greed of imperial powers exploiting the labor of their colonies for
their own benefit while claiming to provide benefits to the people of said colonies. During the
1850s, the British increasingly turned to the nonindustrial world as places in which to harvest the
raw material to fuel Britains Industrial Revolution. Once such place was India, where the British
provided India with technology such as the railroad and the telegraph and a centralized
government that seemed to voice the opinions of the Indians. However, in exchange, the British
forced the Indians to harvest cotton to fuel the British Industrial Revolution. The seemingly
selfless act of granting Indians a greater say in their government (Queen Victoria was the one
actually in control, not the Indian Civil Service that the British set up to placate the population)
and providing new means of transport (Indians couldnt use the railroad as it was mainly used to
transport cotton) was cover for the brutal exploitation of the Indians and the natural environment.
During this time period, Qing dynasty China, although not formally colonized, was also
exploited by the European powers in exchange for protection against further humiliation. After
the first Sino Japanese War of 1894-1895, in which China, lacking modernization, suffered a
humiliating defeat at the hands of Japan, Japan forced China to give up Taiwan and Korea as
Benjamin Mao
Pd.6
3/14/14
well as the Liaodong Peninsula. Ultimately, Japan was forced to return the Liaodong Peninsula
to China as a result of European and American intervention to preserve the territorial integrity
of China. However, as a reward for their selfless act of defending a weaker nation from a
stronger one, the imperialist powers forced China to open more treaty ports to trade. Although
the industrial powers attempted to preserve stability in China, it was not at because they desired
China to remain independent. Rather, a whole China was easier to push around with regards to
trade because no part of it was under the control of Japan, a rising force in East Asia and one that
the imperial powers feared was becoming equal in status to them.
Although some might say that they truly help people out of the goodness of their hearts
and not because of the prospect of rewards, the truth is that everyone is at least tempted to help
because of some kind of payment, be it money or a title or a position. All politicians say that they
want to help their constituents with no thought of reward, but in reality, all are looking to get
elected or reelected in exchange for benefits to their constituents. Barack Obama was elected in
2008 as the first African American President of the United States. More that 95% of African
Americans voted for Obama, partly because he was the first black candidate on the ballot, but
also because he promised free healthcare in exchange for them voting for him. Around 6.8
million African Americans are uninsured in the U.S and free healthcare is a powerful incentive
for voting. Not to say that Obama didnt care about the plight of uninsured African Americans ,
but getting elected President was probably more important to him (as Im sure would be the case
for John McCain if he were the President). Barack Obama isnt the only President motivated by
more the prospect of more power, so is Vladimir Putin of Russia. Putin recently called the
collapse of the Soviet Union, the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20
th
century. Putin has
begun to reassert Russian influence in the old Soviet Republic of Ukraine. Claiming to want to
Benjamin Mao
Pd.6
3/14/14
protect the human rights of Russians living in Crimea, the eastern section of Ukraine, Putin
ordered Russian troops in to restore order. Although protecting human rights is a noble act,
Putin is just looking for an excuse to build up his empire. There must be a clear distinction made
between what someone says he will do, what he actually does and most importantly, his
motivation for doing it.
The world would certainly be a better place if people were motivated to help others not
by the possibility of rewards that may follow, but by the genuine sincerity of their heart.
However, the world is a greedy place and people will always feel like they deserve some kind of
gift for helping others. Luckily, this greed for payment in the form of special treatment, material
items or titles can be fixed simply by not attaching any form of reward to the act of helping. The
sooner the incentives end, the sooner the world can become a morally just place.