So you want to help people. Great. How? Why? 'How' is the more relevant question, but to address it you need the 'why'. For example, it might be helping to take your coworker's phone calls while he runs to the restroom, but it's not really helping to set up his drug deals while he is already incapacitated from drugs. Of course, if this life is all there is, it won't matter whether you try to help people or not, so you might as well.*
Before continuing, you should stop and try to answer these questions. I'm curious to hear your responses, hopefully untainted by what I have to say.
Thanks in large part to my LDS background, I claim the 'why' is progression, both for individuals and as a society. That's still very open-ended, however: to what end should we progress and help others to progress? Of course we should look to achieve something better but what exactly do we mean by 'better?' Maybe it's like WoW and the goal is to gain more tools and experience. There's something attractive about being equipped to solve any problem we encounter. But then again, many of life's great satisfactions come from overcoming challenges. Ask any researcher why they like their job and they will tell you they enjoy solving problems no one else has solved before. Athletes similarly thrive on overcoming obstacles. Is it really better to share your tools and experiences with others, rather than let them discover for themselves?
Upon reflection, a further consideration comes to mind: I've never been a parent, but I've observed that many parents seem to take their greatest pleasure from their children's successes. As a tutor I've felt gratified when my students did well on exams. So perhaps the best way to help someone is to make them a parent. Or if not that, then a teacher or some other mentor will do. There could be a cascading effect of satisfaction as each mentor sees the success of his or her student, who in turn sees the success of their student, and so on.
Circling back to my LDS background and following a tangent: Suppose benevolent father God exists. One might ask what's so great about being God, for if God is perfect then there is no room to progress.** One idea is that perhaps God isn't actually 'perfect.' That's a can of worms I won't open here. But in relation to the topic at hand, perhaps the thing that makes being God worthwhile (progression or no progression) is observing the successes of humankind, which would probably be measured by the ways people help each other.
* So I practically almost just whipped out Pascal's Wager. Sue me. Actually, let's make it "Sue me, Nazi." Figure as long as I'm throwing around logical fallacies, I might as well pull out a Reductio ad Hitlerum.
** The word "perfect" denotes completeness; it could connote any number of things. Sometimes I like to play around with the idea of an imperfect God just to see where it leads. I think it's not such a dismal proposition as people suggest.
