by Caitlin Bauman
In some of my classes at the University we
have looked into the economic growth and power that the United States has
developed. This went along with the belief that "more is better" and
that this growth will lead to a wealthier community. Over the history of
corporation development it is clear that businesses need to keep improving
production and upgrading technology to keep up with the countries consumption
demand. Regardless of the fact, American consumption rate is drastically higher
than any other country around the world. Yet, still the amount of product never
seems to be enough to satisfy our ways of life. This attitude our country has
is causing environmental degradation and human tragedies which are not causing
power gain.
With
this drive for having to have "more" there are a lot of issues being
brought to the surface. More land is having to be used and destroyed due to mass
produce production and this leads to an inability to add the nutrition needed
back to the soil. Also having to do with the large factories for different
products, that never seem to sleep, are pushing terribly high amounts of toxins
into the air leading to global warming issues. These are not the only tragedies
that occur due to over consumption there are many more that could be added.
So the question, "Do we really need
everything we currently have?" is something that always crosses my mind.
In a reading from Deep Economy by Bill McKibben, I found an interesting
consideration that illustrates the severity of our consumption level. " If
the Chinese owned cars in the same numbers as Americans, the world would have
more than twice as many vehicles as it does now." This is terribly eye
opening to the unnecessary lifestyle we live. Seeing as carbon dioxide levels
are skyrocketing as is just think about what would occur if areas other than
the U.S. had the same thought process as we do here. Americans as a whole have
the belief that "more is better" and there are examples of this
occurring everywhere. This explains why we always want the latest item or the
best technology even though life does proceed in places without these products.
And how wealth is often times illustrated by the materialistic items you
posses.
One
last quote from Deep Economy states "..in the end it's reality I want to
deal with - the reality of what our world can provide, the reality of what we
actually want. The old realism-an endless More-is morphing into a dangerous
fantasy". This passage really illustrates how overconsumption or the
desire for having more doesn't have a bright future. This is a lifestyle that
does need to change and should not be taken as lightly as it is now. People are
well aware that Americans over consume every product out there yet no one
stands up and demands for it to stop. We will have to deal with the
consequences.
Bill McKibben. "Deep Economy - The
Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future". 2007 Copyright .
1 comment:
I agree that the United States is consuming products at a rate that we can't sustain. More people need to look at the big picture and realize we don't need all of these material items. Even the people who realize this still over consume, maybe not as much as others, but more than the rest of the world. I feel like a lot of the problems you talked about come from what we see on tv and read in magazines. Theirs only so much an individual can do. Everything is so readily available, it's hard not to buy somthing when it's shoved in your face. I hope that more and more consumers will realize that they don't need to buy the latest and greatest IPhone and that the phone they have works just fine. I wonder what will happen if the trend we're on continues for another 50 years. It's one thing to talk about problems, but it's another to fix them.
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