The following situation illustrates a very complicated moral dilemma. One has to choose between a public health program that would increase life expectance by two years; a reform of educational system that would improve the work of our primary schools and a housing program which would provide every homeless person with an adequate place to live.
If I were in charge, I would provide funding to a housing program, as it seems to be one of the most urgent problems in the society. Currently, at least five percent of the population cannot afford an appropriate habitation, and this gives rise to a large number of problems:
- increased expenses on Medicare;
- high rates of violent crime (Levinson, 2004).
Therefore, I have chosen to fund a housing program as it will help to solve many of our problems, not only homelessness. While making this choice, I tried to take into consideration the best interest of community. To a large extent, this decision can be explained by the utilitarian theory of ethics, according to which the interests of society are more important than the interests of an individual (Westermarck, 2000).
There are some other reasons, why I would like to argue in support of a housing program. First, the problem of our schools does not originate from the lack of funding. More likely, it is connected with the lack of appropriate educational methods or with the teachers’ inability to use these methods. Increased funding will not enable us to overcome the key difficulties, faced by both parents and educators.
The program that is supposed to increase life expectance at two years may appear to be a very promising undertaking. Yet, it is not quite clear to me how this objective is going to be achieved. I do understand that the government would invest money into medical institutions but I do not know how they are going to accomplish this task. Besides, this kind of initiative is oriented only towards short-term objectives. It is quite probably that when the funds become exhausted, the life expectancy in our country will decline again. The major disadvantage of this program is that it does not provide a sustainable effect.
In turn, a housing program will provide people with an opportunity to settle down, find at job, and lead a regular life. Moreover, in the long term, this homeless people (or their children) will become tax-payers, and this will alleviate the burden of other citizens. There are the reasons why I wholeheartedly support a housing program.