Topic: Affluenza

[JMM]

Caught this film while surfing the channels last night, very eye catching indeed. If you get a chance, rent it or look for it to be shown again. I guarantee you it will awaken you to what is going on with the world consumer wise and with this global economy stuff.

What I found interesting?

Since 1950, America has consumed more energy and products than ALL of civilization before!

Waste? Too many details to go into, you gotta see the film. One instance? In 1 year in America, enough aluminum cans (loved how they focused on beer cans) go to landfills instead of recycling (regardless of the hype, recycling in America is MINIMAL at best), all those wasted aluminum cans are enough to build 6 THOUSAND DC-10s!

The American consumer consumes 5 times more than a Mexican, 10 times more than a Chinese, 30 times more than a person from India. All that is changing now as China and Mexico and India are getting more affluent and are able to buy new cars, consumer products, etc... If every Chinese family had two cars RIGHT NOW, you would really see an oil crisis. As it stands now, estimates with the Indian and Chinese population and rise in consumerism that our grandkids may very well see the end of the petroleum industry. I say why wait? Instead of giving the Iraqis all our money, let's buy big gas guzzling SUVs and cars with big block V-8s and GIVE them to India and China, let's suck up the fossil fuel companies now, not later! America will then have no choice but to switch to hybrid and fuel cell technology! Hehehehehehehe.

In all seriousness though, there is a growing movement in America to cut the BS and get back on the right track. One thing I like about Mexico vs the U.S.A. No frigging billboards telling me that I need to buy this or use that in order to be somebody.  

If you enter Affluenza in your search engine, you can find many highlights.

BTW, our media is not controlled, we have free press? The groups involved during the filming were willing to pay market rates for the media to carry their commercials, not controversial or bad or anything, just sending out a message, it did not matter though, no major network wanted to carry them.

Seems President Carter was the only President concerned about waste and consumerism and the ecology.  

They also had an interesting graph comparison of GDP vs GDI

http://www.undp.org/hdr2000/english/FAQs.html

For those of you that have been other places, seen other things, been around the world, you know what I am talking about. Maybe it would behoove us to be like Germany and make recycling and separation of trash articles Mandatory or face stiff fines and penalties.

How much steel sits rusting in our junkyards or landfills? God only knows that one I guess.  We cannot compete in world steel even when we go to third world countries and mine it there? Maybe if we recycled all the frigging steel laying around the U.S. rotting away we could still pay a good American wage AND compete in the world markets.    

[Clark Kent]

Good topic, and easy to fix too, but it's something that will not be fixed, at least I doubt it will happen in my lifetime.  Americans have been taught to be apathetic because of commercialism, and it's a problem that will continue to get worse and worse as time goes on. I don't mean to be pessimistic, I'm just trying to read the patterns I see.  Pessimistic would be to say it can't be fixed.  I believe this issue can be toppled easily, it just won't.  
OUr over commercialized society has even gotten to the point where we are dependant on it.  I doubt anyone wants to be destroying the world around them, they're priorities are just way out of whack.  People buy unnecessary products in order to help stream line their lives, so they can spend more time relaxing, or so they can make more money.  What they fail to realize is that it's an unending path to more buying and spending, and that for 99% of us, that path will not get us ahead.  Or perhaps they do realize it,a nd are absorbed by unbridled optimism.
As for alternative energies, that's a whole other issue.  Most power plants in the US operate by fossil fuels of one form or another, be it petroleum, coal, or whatever.  What people really need to think about is developing wind, solar and hydro-electric power, utilize nuclear power more effectlively and research fusion power.  As far as car with alternate forms of fuel, don't buy into the hype.  hydrogen powered cars get the hydrogen from water- another precious, valued and limited (despite the fact that the world is 75% covered by water) commodity.  Much of the world is already feeling the strain from insufficient drinking water supplies, and now everyone is talking about using it to power vehicles.  Electric cars?  where does the electricity coem from?  That's right, more fossil fuels.  One of the best things for this country would be a more developed public transportation system, especially in places like Minnesota, where public trans is next to non existand.  Unfortunatley, people are too dependant on their cars, and whine and cry to high heaven when they can't have their persoanl car taking them every which way.  
The final problem to consider is the various industries that push consumerism.  Money has become prided n this country to the point where nearly nothing can happen without it.  Want a house?  you have to buy it.  The days of being able to build one of your own are gone.  Not to mention, even if you could build it on your own for next to nothing, you still have to pay the government for it because they have to have some sort of monetary retribution for every single thing that happens in this country.  The petrolem industry is particularly bad.  Since money is now the end all be all in this country, and they have money, they are not about to give up they're power.  they will pull strings and do whatever it takes to keep control and keep people buying from them.  And I do mean, whatever it takes.
Of course, this all wouldn't be a problem either if people would just simply stop having kids left and right.  if everyone of child bearing age stopped having kids right now and the future childbearers limited themselves to two kids, most of these problems would disapear.
CK

[Scott Allen Abfalter]

Pish!

If other countries do not use as much energy as us then they are not trying hard enough!  There is a reason why we have such a powerhouse economy!

 

[JMM]

Caught this film while surfing the channels last night, very eye catching indeed. If you get a chance, rent it or look for it to be shown again. I guarantee you it will awaken you to what is going on with the world consumer wise and with this global economy stuff.

What I found interesting?

Since 1950, America has consumed more energy and products than ALL of civilization before!

Waste? Too many details to go into, you gotta see the film. One instance? In 1 year in America, enough aluminum cans (loved how they focused on beer cans) go to landfills instead of recycling (regardless of the hype, recycling in America is MINIMAL at best), all those wasted aluminum cans are enough to build 6 THOUSAND DC-10s!

The American consumer consumes 5 times more than a Mexican, 10 times more than a Chinese, 30 times more than a person from India. All that is changing now as China and Mexico and India are getting more affluent and are able to buy new cars, consumer products, etc... If every Chinese family had two cars RIGHT NOW, you would really see an oil crisis. As it stands now, estimates with the Indian and Chinese population and rise in consumerism that our grandkids may very well see the end of the petroleum industry. I say why wait? Instead of giving the Iraqis all our money, let's buy big gas guzzling SUVs and cars with big block V-8s and GIVE them to India and China, let's suck up the fossil fuel companies now, not later! America will then have no choice but to switch to hybrid and fuel cell technology! Hehehehehehehe.

In all seriousness though, there is a growing movement in America to cut the BS and get back on the right track. One thing I like about Mexico vs the U.S.A. No frigging billboards telling me that I need to buy this or use that in order to be somebody.  

If you enter Affluenza in your search engine, you can find many highlights.

BTW, our media is not controlled, we have free press? The groups involved during the filming were willing to pay market rates for the media to carry their commercials, not controversial or bad or anything, just sending out a message, it did not matter though, no major network wanted to carry them.

Seems President Carter was the only President concerned about waste and consumerism and the ecology.  

They also had an interesting graph comparison of GDP vs GDI

http://www.undp.org/hdr2000/english/FAQs.html

For those of you that have been other places, seen other things, been around the world, you know what I am talking about. Maybe it would behoove us to be like Germany and make recycling and separation of trash articles Mandatory or face stiff fines and penalties.

How much steel sits rusting in our junkyards or landfills? God only knows that one I guess.  We cannot compete in world steel even when we go to third world countries and mine it there? Maybe if we recycled all the frigging steel laying around the U.S. rotting away we could still pay a good American wage AND compete in the world markets.    

[Clark Kent]

Good topic, and easy to fix too, but it's something that will not be fixed, at least I doubt it will happen in my lifetime.  Americans have been taught to be apathetic because of commercialism, and it's a problem that will continue to get worse and worse as time goes on. I don't mean to be pessimistic, I'm just trying to read the patterns I see.  Pessimistic would be to say it can't be fixed.  I believe this issue can be toppled easily, it just won't.  
OUr over commercialized society has even gotten to the point where we are dependant on it.  I doubt anyone wants to be destroying the world around them, they're priorities are just way out of whack.  People buy unnecessary products in order to help stream line their lives, so they can spend more time relaxing, or so they can make more money.  What they fail to realize is that it's an unending path to more buying and spending, and that for 99% of us, that path will not get us ahead.  Or perhaps they do realize it,a nd are absorbed by unbridled optimism.
As for alternative energies, that's a whole other issue.  Most power plants in the US operate by fossil fuels of one form or another, be it petroleum, coal, or whatever.  What people really need to think about is developing wind, solar and hydro-electric power, utilize nuclear power more effectlively and research fusion power.  As far as car with alternate forms of fuel, don't buy into the hype.  hydrogen powered cars get the hydrogen from water- another precious, valued and limited (despite the fact that the world is 75% covered by water) commodity.  Much of the world is already feeling the strain from insufficient drinking water supplies, and now everyone is talking about using it to power vehicles.  Electric cars?  where does the electricity coem from?  That's right, more fossil fuels.  One of the best things for this country would be a more developed public transportation system, especially in places like Minnesota, where public trans is next to non existand.  Unfortunatley, people are too dependant on their cars, and whine and cry to high heaven when they can't have their persoanl car taking them every which way.  
The final problem to consider is the various industries that push consumerism.  Money has become prided n this country to the point where nearly nothing can happen without it.  Want a house?  you have to buy it.  The days of being able to build one of your own are gone.  Not to mention, even if you could build it on your own for next to nothing, you still have to pay the government for it because they have to have some sort of monetary retribution for every single thing that happens in this country.  The petrolem industry is particularly bad.  Since money is now the end all be all in this country, and they have money, they are not about to give up they're power.  they will pull strings and do whatever it takes to keep control and keep people buying from them.  And I do mean, whatever it takes.
Of course, this all wouldn't be a problem either if people would just simply stop having kids left and right.  if everyone of child bearing age stopped having kids right now and the future childbearers limited themselves to two kids, most of these problems would disapear.
CK

[Scott Allen Abfalter]

Pish!

If other countries do not use as much energy as us then they are not trying hard enough!  There is a reason why we have such a powerhouse economy!

 

[JMM]

Caught this film while surfing the channels last night, very eye catching indeed. If you get a chance, rent it or look for it to be shown again. I guarantee you it will awaken you to what is going on with the world consumer wise and with this global economy stuff.

What I found interesting?

Since 1950, America has consumed more energy and products than ALL of civilization before!

Waste? Too many details to go into, you gotta see the film. One instance? In 1 year in America, enough aluminum cans (loved how they focused on beer cans) go to landfills instead of recycling (regardless of the hype, recycling in America is MINIMAL at best), all those wasted aluminum cans are enough to build 6 THOUSAND DC-10s!

The American consumer consumes 5 times more than a Mexican, 10 times more than a Chinese, 30 times more than a person from India. All that is changing now as China and Mexico and India are getting more affluent and are able to buy new cars, consumer products, etc... If every Chinese family had two cars RIGHT NOW, you would really see an oil crisis. As it stands now, estimates with the Indian and Chinese population and rise in consumerism that our grandkids may very well see the end of the petroleum industry. I say why wait? Instead of giving the Iraqis all our money, let's buy big gas guzzling SUVs and cars with big block V-8s and GIVE them to India and China, let's suck up the fossil fuel companies now, not later! America will then have no choice but to switch to hybrid and fuel cell technology! Hehehehehehehe.

In all seriousness though, there is a growing movement in America to cut the BS and get back on the right track. One thing I like about Mexico vs the U.S.A. No frigging billboards telling me that I need to buy this or use that in order to be somebody.  

If you enter Affluenza in your search engine, you can find many highlights.

BTW, our media is not controlled, we have free press? The groups involved during the filming were willing to pay market rates for the media to carry their commercials, not controversial or bad or anything, just sending out a message, it did not matter though, no major network wanted to carry them.

Seems President Carter was the only President concerned about waste and consumerism and the ecology.  

They also had an interesting graph comparison of GDP vs GDI

http://www.undp.org/hdr2000/english/FAQs.html

For those of you that have been other places, seen other things, been around the world, you know what I am talking about. Maybe it would behoove us to be like Germany and make recycling and separation of trash articles Mandatory or face stiff fines and penalties.

How much steel sits rusting in our junkyards or landfills? God only knows that one I guess.  We cannot compete in world steel even when we go to third world countries and mine it there? Maybe if we recycled all the frigging steel laying around the U.S. rotting away we could still pay a good American wage AND compete in the world markets.    

[Clark Kent]

Good topic, and easy to fix too, but it's something that will not be fixed, at least I doubt it will happen in my lifetime.  Americans have been taught to be apathetic because of commercialism, and it's a problem that will continue to get worse and worse as time goes on. I don't mean to be pessimistic, I'm just trying to read the patterns I see.  Pessimistic would be to say it can't be fixed.  I believe this issue can be toppled easily, it just won't.  
OUr over commercialized society has even gotten to the point where we are dependant on it.  I doubt anyone wants to be destroying the world around them, they're priorities are just way out of whack.  People buy unnecessary products in order to help stream line their lives, so they can spend more time relaxing, or so they can make more money.  What they fail to realize is that it's an unending path to more buying and spending, and that for 99% of us, that path will not get us ahead.  Or perhaps they do realize it,a nd are absorbed by unbridled optimism.
As for alternative energies, that's a whole other issue.  Most power plants in the US operate by fossil fuels of one form or another, be it petroleum, coal, or whatever.  What people really need to think about is developing wind, solar and hydro-electric power, utilize nuclear power more effectlively and research fusion power.  As far as car with alternate forms of fuel, don't buy into the hype.  hydrogen powered cars get the hydrogen from water- another precious, valued and limited (despite the fact that the world is 75% covered by water) commodity.  Much of the world is already feeling the strain from insufficient drinking water supplies, and now everyone is talking about using it to power vehicles.  Electric cars?  where does the electricity coem from?  That's right, more fossil fuels.  One of the best things for this country would be a more developed public transportation system, especially in places like Minnesota, where public trans is next to non existand.  Unfortunatley, people are too dependant on their cars, and whine and cry to high heaven when they can't have their persoanl car taking them every which way.  
The final problem to consider is the various industries that push consumerism.  Money has become prided n this country to the point where nearly nothing can happen without it.  Want a house?  you have to buy it.  The days of being able to build one of your own are gone.  Not to mention, even if you could build it on your own for next to nothing, you still have to pay the government for it because they have to have some sort of monetary retribution for every single thing that happens in this country.  The petrolem industry is particularly bad.  Since money is now the end all be all in this country, and they have money, they are not about to give up they're power.  they will pull strings and do whatever it takes to keep control and keep people buying from them.  And I do mean, whatever it takes.
Of course, this all wouldn't be a problem either if people would just simply stop having kids left and right.  if everyone of child bearing age stopped having kids right now and the future childbearers limited themselves to two kids, most of these problems would disapear.
CK

[Scott Allen Abfalter]

Pish!

If other countries do not use as much energy as us then they are not trying hard enough!  There is a reason why we have such a powerhouse economy!