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When you serve in the community, there’s a part of the brain that gets activated and a level of satisfaction that we, as humans, attain. Devin Thorpe is the perfect man to share this matter with, he’s here to help enlighten us with the importance of serving our community.
We know service is good. But in this video, we’re going to dive a little bit deeper into why serving in our community is important. Of course, I brought back Devin Thorpe for this conversation. This is an awesome conversation. Let’s start at the basic level to begin with why is serving in our community so important? -Well, it is for a variety of reasons. But at a fundamental level, one of the things that I would point out is that we all have a place in our brain that is activated by altruism or that motivates us to do good for others. It is a distinctly human trait as far as we can tell. But it’s a really powerful need that we all have. To do some good. And so doing good in the community is a really powerful way to sort of activate that part of the brain. And I realize everybody feels that a little bit differently but virtually all of us, feel that to some degree or another. And we can activate that part of our brains even if it hasn’t been active by engaging in service… -Okay, so I’ve got a question that will flip it around then. What are some of the negative impacts that I might experience if I’m not serving in my community? -Our lives… There are so many different people and I’m certainly not a psychologist. You and I know one. You could ask him about this. But my experience in the research I’ve done suggests that there is really and truly a level of human satisfaction that comes from doing good. That if we don’t have that in our lives, we’re really missing out. All kinds of data suggests that people who do service and give service are happier in life. They’re happier in their jobs, it’s almost kind of magic. I don’t want to dismiss for a minute, you know, clinical depression and that sort of thing. But clearly, one of the treatments for depression would be some service to get you out of your own head a little bit and focused on others. So, yeah. That’s an awesome point to bring in. So, even biologically or just just physically, I will feel differently. I’ll experience life in a different way whether I’m serving or whatnot. -And most people do. Most people are doing giving some of their time or money to a cause every year. And so we’re really talking about a minority of people who don’t do anything.
So, I’ve got a question for you. Maybe you can help me out because like there’s actually an area where I’m struggling where… And it’s just a mental struggle. I feel like I love to give but I am also… I also judge quite a lot. -Mm-hmm. Well when there’s a… When there’s a panhandler, I’m really judgmental. And I don’t like to give to panhandlers. You know, people on on the exit ramp on the freeway. And in my mind, I’ve actually made an intentional choice instead of giving to people that are on the street corners asking for money. But I’m going to make an intentional choice ahead of time that I’m going to be a good tipper for the the waiter or waitress at the restaurant, for the Uber driver. And part of me still feels guilty for making that choice. Because it’s… I want to give and I love people that are there giving of themselves. Obviously the person at the restaurant of their Uber driver or other other places that I can give a tip. Was just in New York there is a tour guide that I that I went on and they’re obviously they have these jobs because they want money. They’re essentially saying… Holding up the sign saying, “Hey, I need money.” And for some reason, I feel great and I love giving to people in the form of a generous tip. But at the same time, I’m judging people on the street corner not wanting to give them a tip and I’m judging they’re going to do with the money and choices they made in their lives. So how can I… -Yeah. So… No, that’s a really good setup. And I would point out that it’s really an important lesson to be thinking about most of the people you’re tipping. Not all. Some are quite well-off. But many are not well-off by your standard, right? They are in a situation where they may or may not have good health insurance, they may or may not have health insurance for their kids, you know, who knows the situations. So yes, being a fair, generous tipper is I think a moral good for sure. I commend you for doing that. Giving to panhandlers is very controversial. Sadly, there are some panhandlers who are not very hard up. If someone has a car and a clean warm place to sleep every night and their panhandling for an income that offends me. Many of the homeless people I see around aren’t actively panhandling. They get a variety of services. Some do. Especially those that have habits that they need to feed apart from food. So yeah, it’s very controversial. And one of the things that I try to remember and encourage other people to remember is that they are all human beings. Whether it is a faker, a manipulator, is panhandling and going home to a warm bed every night. There’s that. I try to remember they’re human beings. And they may not have a much better way to maintain that lifestyle. In our economy, there are a lot of reasons people are displaced. I would like to think that they could do better. But on the other hand, you and I know here in Utah, you don’t make $15 now are slinging burgers at McDonald’s. If you can make $15 an hour panhandling, our economy is screwed up. As much as that person is, right? Anyway, so I try to see them all as human beings. Even those who are addicted to heroin and there are a lot even here in Salt Lake. Of course who are struggling with terrible demons. Of course we have some who are mentally ill. And so one way to cope with that dilemma would be also find an organization that supports homeless people in a way that you… That aligns with your values. So, there are all kinds of halfway houses and programs and… So you know, you can give to a homeless shelter. It helps people get off the street at night so they’re not dying of exposure overnight. Every year in Utah about a hundred people well in Salt Lake. About a hundred people in Salt Lake die from homelessness every year. By and large, that doesn’t sound like a lot for a big city. But we’re only talking about a population of homeless of chronically homeless people of 500 or a thousand people. So like, 10 or 20% of them are dying every year. It’s a horrible horrible life of tragic. So, there are all kinds of organizations that are providing food, shelter, job training, drug treatment. All kinds of things. And we can and should give to those organizations for sure. You know, we benefit. We benefit from eliminating homelessness. Homelessness in our community is a real scourge. And it’s expensive. It has a negative impact on all of us. It’s uncomfortable with it as it is for you and I to see it. We have to remember it’s a thousand times worse to experience it. And there are way too many people in our community who experience it for brief periods of time. That is clearly a problem of our economy that is sometimes a problem of our healthy economy, right? Rents go up, home prices go up, wages don’t seem to keep up with inflation very well in our country. It’s a country problem. And so, we’re seeing more and more people experiencing homelessness. Not in a chronic sense like the folks we see downtown that haven’t bathed in 6 months, right? It’s the people who get evicted from their home because they can’t keep up with rent, something happened. Job interruption, you know, they got laid off, a health problem. You know, medical problem took all of their money. I mean, all kinds of different things that we would frankly say, we’re no fault of their own. Puts them out on the street. Now they have no money for a first and last month’s rent and a deposit. And they’re homeless. And they’re in the system.
So, there are a lot of systemic things that we can be looking at in our communities. Perhaps the biggest to alleviate at least that form of homelessness is to look at affordable housing policies. And for landlords to look at carefully alternatives to eviction. Because eviction in and of itself creates that cycle. And I think landlords can do more to avoid that some of the time. And the fewer evictions we have in our community, it will reduce dramatically. These period people that experience homelessness for 3 weeks or 3 months as they transition back into housing. And we need to eliminate those gaps through this a variety of things. -I can see those being a tough one. I’m not a landlord but I have done a lot of filming for a real estate investing YouTube channel. And you know, there’s a lot of… There’s a lot of risks that you have to mitigate in order to be profitable on your rental. And so, you know, to bring in that idea of if you’re going to evict somebody, they’re going to become homeless. But if I don’t, I’m going to go into the negative on this property. That’s a tough one. The alternative is necessarily not to collect the rent. And I realize I am a very small sample but my parents had a rental place and the tenant was 5 months behind. It was a disaster. It took us a year that I went in. And I was a real jerk/ I’m sure the tenant hates me. But we kept her in that apartment for 5 years. And of that 5 years, she probably paid the rent on time in 12 months out of 5 years. She was a candidate for eviction for almost… Well for 48 months of 60 months. But we kept her in there and yeah, the way I dealt with it was to be a jerk. I would go over and sometimes yell at her. Get on the phone and yell. Horrible but we kept her in that house for 5 years. But there are alternatives to eviction. You know, you can in some cases do it. But you know, there are a variety of other policies that we need to be do. We need their federal subsidies available for some housing. But the city’s probably need to be committing resources to this as well. They don’t enough. Even in very liberal Salt Lake City, I don’t think the city is doing nearly enough to create and incentivize affordable housing. Affordable housing can be profitable. We need regulations that make it easier for it to be profitable. That may mean code that allows for smaller dwelling units for more people. Trust me, a family of 4 is happier in 4 hundred square feet than on the street. So, we need to be really thoughtful about all of those issues and how they come together. Because if we can keep people housed, there are all kinds of other peripheral community issues that can also be avoided, community problems. -Well, I appreciate this discussion. One, appreciate the discussion on you know what are the benefits of serving in the community. And then just kind of expanding it that there are there are a variety of ways of doing it and if there’s… In my case, I brought up a way that you know, I see a problem here but I’ve got a conflict of how to help there. And you’ve pointed out several different ways. You know, there’s ways that we can help with housing and even just… Anyway, so I appreciate that perspective. Hopefully this video was helpful to you. Share your comments below on the benefits that you get from from serving others serving in the community. Now, if you want to find out more information about Devin and the great things that he’s doing, I’ll put a link to your YouTube channel and website. I’ll put that down below. So be sure to subscribe and we’ll see you tomorrow.