EPTWhen I was in Taiwan, I would always tell my Taiwanese classmates, "American's are the most wasteful people on the planet. I would know, I'm one of them." I was reading through an intro to biology textbook in an online course at my university and I found this:
![[image loading]](http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k1/eye_am_ben/Americans.png)
That being brought to light, I always thought to myself, "Hmm... Although I've never been to Europe, I was born and raised in the USA, I've been to Canada, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Japan, and it always seemed to me that Taiwan, HK, Japan, and Canada were very clean and 'lean', although Canada was not as ’compact‘ as the rest of these countries."
With that in mind, I couldn't help but notice the random obese people walking the streets here in America. I've seen overweight people on welfare, and I've seen fit people that were extremely rich and humble. I've seen rich people that were fat and stuck-up, I've seen people that were poor and humble. There is no improper or proper combination of any of these words in a single sentence. I've seen people go in to a buffet restaurant, eat three perfectly good plates of food, and then bitch about how awful it tasted, and then demanded a free meal. Scotch free, and I've seen them get it too.
Sometimes, I myself, feel pretty wasteful. After reading through more of my textbook yesterday, I stopped and thought to myself, "Next time I go somewhere to eat, I'm going to eat less or start going to the gym, and I'm only going to use one napkin when I go somewhere to eat." This morning I ate at my uni's cafeteria. I had a burger with American and Swiss Cheese, mushrooms, bacon, grilled onions, and a fried egg on a Ciabatta bun. I had some chick-fil-e nuggets, a glass of Poweraid red punch and a pink donut with a glass of Starbucks Vanilla Latte. And I used five napkins. But I was grateful for every bit of it and I realized that there are people who don't get food like this on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis in our world. I probably won't eat another meal today, as this was more than ample calory-intake and I won't be getting a lot of exercise today.
Just what am I getting at? I feel we need programs to "rekindle" the American spirit to make us realize just how many resources we are using on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, just how much food we are consuming that we don't need, and the forth, to help realize just what harm we are doing to our planet's ecosystems and how we can help foreign countries with the excess food that we are eating. 80 Million people... I'm pretty sure that's enough to feed North Korea 2 or 3 times over. If nothing else, I feel we should implement programs to make us realize just how wasteful we are being in contrast to other countries.
I myself, have spent more than a year of my life in China, and four months in Taiwan. The last time I went to Mainland China, I was in a countryside city with almost no foreign industry save for some foreign-branded cigarettes (Marlboro, Kent, etc.), and some foreign candies / snacks (Oreos, Chips-Ahoy, etc.). Almost every morning for breakfast, with my girlfriend and her family we were eating noodles, pork dumplings, stuffed steam-buns, rice porridge, white rice and something called man-tou, which is basically a form of steam-cooked bread. There was no KFC, no Pizza Hut, No Papa Johns, and no McDonalds restaurants. The closest thing they had to any foreign restaurants was a restaurant that was basically a rip-off of KFC called HKC. The burgers they had there contained extremely thin slices of meat, no real beef to speak of, and some Bologna-like meat. This was January 2012. People urinated and defecated in the streets, and wore winter clothing indoors due to a large lack of central heating and air. The clouds in the sky were often black because of the excessive amount of coal used to power the city
In August 2009, I had first come back from China after a period of time that was roughly 361 days. When I came back, I missed all of the food in my hometown that I didn't have in China. Over the course of time from August 2009 to December 2009, I went from 150 pounds to 190. Now, I am 160 pounds, and grateful I realized what was happening to me.
What's the plan?
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We need to give Americans a way to realize that they should be grateful for the ways of life that they have. I'm sick and tired of seeing these people who so delinquently bitch about how bad their lives are, and coquettishly complain about the food that they have that many people in the world don't know they have.
Proposed Courses of action
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I think that the United States government should require all citizens of the U.S.A. to leave the country for a period of time equal to, or greater than six months in order to maintain their U.S. citizenship. Alternatively, citizens could elect to enlist in a branch of the U.S. Military for a period of time no less than two years (whether they actually leave the country or not is completely irrelevant to me, because as long as one is on a military base in a foreign country, they have access to most of the things they could get at home (macdonalds, taco bell, kfc, commissary and PX, etc.).).
Another alternative, which would be interesting to try to mimic, is setting up and establishing "Third world camps" where the environment of the camp is similar to an agrarian/agricultural society with no electronics and the only method for communication with loved ones is written-letters and 30-minute phone calls (to be designated at phone call stations) once each week. Total exceptions to all three of these proposed ideas should include but not be limited to people with handicaps or serious mental illness. Proposed period of time to live in a third world camp? 12 months.
The Benefits?
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* Increasingly globalized world economy (if candidates elect to leave the country for six months).
* Increased global ties (in general).
* Stronger military (or at least larger in numbers).
* Less wasteful consumption.
* More Verstehen ("understanding").
* Increased global ties (in general).
* Stronger military (or at least larger in numbers).
* Less wasteful consumption.
* More Verstehen ("understanding").
The Drawbacks?
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* Lots of spending (either on the part of taxpayers or the citizens themselves when it comes time to make these choices).
* What if someone does not return or dies as a direct result of their exposure to the military, leaving the country, or third world camp? Who is held liable in that sort of meta-theory?
* Mobilization. How does all of this get started, up, and stay running without extreme economic deficit?
* What if someone does not return or dies as a direct result of their exposure to the military, leaving the country, or third world camp? Who is held liable in that sort of meta-theory?
* Mobilization. How does all of this get started, up, and stay running without extreme economic deficit?
What do you guys think?
TL;DR version- Americans are wasteful, and I think we should do something about it.
