Since the wake of COVID-19, many people worldwide have faced an economic downturn. Millions of people were laid off from work, losing their source of income, and thousands of businesses could not move on. The government has the mandate to protect its people from physical and economic problems and provide services that people cannot provide for themselves. However, it is not determined the extent to which the government can support its citizens. Different countries have provided different levels of support, with some of the first-world countries providing much assistance to their citizens while other third-world countries provide only essential services to their citizens.
One of the main questions that help answer how much the government should help its citizens who face hard times is whether it helps due to compassion or its richness. Rich countries provide different levels of assistance to their citizens in hard economic times. For instance, the US paid its citizens who lost work due to COVID-19 some federal benefit while other rich countries like Germany prevented people from losing their jobs by injecting capital into their payroll. This shows that the previously unemployed people in Germany before the pandemic could not benefit from the program. The US was compassionate about its citizens because it helped them make a living despite being laid off or being previously unemployed. In Germany, only employed individuals could benefit from the COVID-19 program, which supports the country’s economy and does not help the people. However, comparing these results with those of third world countries, it can also be concluded that countries are likely to help their citizens based on the country’s wealth. The USA is far richer than Germany, and therefore, this may justify their act of compensating unemployed citizens during hard economic times.
Many countries helped their citizens during the pandemic to avoid criticism from the global community but not due to compassion. Most West and Central African countries were reported to have been involved in corruption and fraud in the money sent to help during the pandemic. Their leaders lacked compassion, and therefore, they only helped those in the most extreme need to avoid shame and criticism. This can be compared with the mayor of New York City, who moved the homeless from parks and streets into Bellevue hospital (Cohen). He did this to avoid awareness of rags, which is troublesome to the electorate. Some of the countries only helped the citizens in economic downtown to avoid the shame and criticism of the international community.
I would advise governments to act in compassion and not in their interests when helping the people who have fallen in hard times. This can be done by providing lasting solutions to their problems to enable them to live stable life. However, they should not be tired of assisting them when they pledge for help again and again, as the French woman is not tired of feeding the older man who visits his store on the essay on compassion (Cohen). If all humans lived were compassionate, there would not be homeless people in the streets. The government should provide constant help to those in need due to compassion and not fuel their own interests.
Work Cited
Cohen, Samuel S. 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2020.