Overindulgence
In this world of gas guzzling SUV's, fast food restaurants, and suburban sprawl, we have lost sight of possibly the most virtuous term known to man: moderation. Over consumption is slowly killing America. We supersize our fries, trucks, beverages, breasts, biceps, and entertainment. As this nation wastefully consumes, we are distributing the hard earned wealth of our for-fathers amongst rapidly growing nations that will one day threaten U.S. economic supremacy. At this critical point in U.S. history, the citizens of our great nation must begin to make a substantial effort towards a more efficient use of our economic power. Through widespread conservation efforts, the citizens of the United States can and will protect our foothold as a major economic powerhouse.
posted by The Rhetorician @ 8:58 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
You have to realize that the U.S. is a capitalistic society. In order for it to function, it requires its members to spend their money to keep its gears turning. Whether it means urging people to buy holiday gifts or spend an extra 40 cents on a larger fries and coke. If you don't spend your money (you save it or you pay off a credit card) you are hurting the economy. You need to buy a three level home, you need to leave the TV on all day, you need to buy that gas-gusling Hummer. We are set into that mentality when we're bombarded with advertisements (about 5,000 a day) and it is hard to break that spell.
Not spending money isn't hurting the economy...A $1.3 Trillion national debt is though!
When I first came to America and saw people eating from plastic plates and then just tossing them into the trash can, I was shocked! This is the American way of life. President Bush said it very nice in one of his State of the Union addresses: Conservation is not American.
It will be interesting to see how high the gas prices have to go before people start realizing that we're actually running out of it. What's even more concerning to me though, is water. If we keep wasting drinking water the way we are, we just simply have no future. We can survive without gas (believe it or not)but not without water.
I agree with Carmen. Even as a citizen, I do feel that we don't actually value what we should, such as water. Yes, all the things the America is blessed with is NICE, but they are not necessities.
I agree Carmen that yes we have a trillion dollar deficit and yes Americans are indeed wasteful by nature.
However, and this is a big however, that money is money that we owe to ourselves and even though it is a debt, should we pay that money back, we'd only be paying it to ourselves. Eventually we will have to stop spending money that we don't have but as far is Bush is concerned this is never going to happen.
And as for water ... water is never really wasted. After you drink it your body utilizes it and eventually excretes it via tears, saliva, sweat and urine. Some of that evaporates and rejoins the water cycle while the rest ends up at water treatment centers and through various filtration and sanitation procedures comes back as tap water or else flows out into rivers and aquifers and flows on. What is a waste is when there is a drought, water becomes much much more scarce and people blatantly waste more water than what can be replenished.
People also do not recycle the plastic bottles which will eventually biodegrade in about three years and also take up space in landfills. These bottles should be recycled and it is easy now that El Paso has curbside recycling. Yet still, many people just throw them away.
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