Affluenza
An epidemic has been sweeping the country, getting worse each decade.
Do you have any of these symptoms?
- Shopping fever
- Shoe collection Imelda Marcus would envy
- Drive a sports utility vehicle though you never leave paved roads
- Chronic stress
- Bankruptcy
If you do, you are suffering from Affluenza.
Af-flu-en-za n. 1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled
feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic
of stress, overwork, waste and indeptedness caused by dogged pursuit of
the American Dream. 3. An unsustainable addiction to economic
growth.
- What are some obstacles that come to mind when you think about
reducing your consumption and spending?
- What would be one step you would feel comfortable taking in the
coming weeks to begin changing your current consumption or spending
habits?
Our current consumption not only affects our current quality of life but
also leaves a lasting mark on our planet. A measurement called theEcological
Footprint allows us to compare our consumption with other countries.
The Ecological Footprint describes the total productive land area required
to sustain a given population, region or county. It is an accounting tool,
which uses land area as its measurement unit. Types of consumption are
translated into equivalent maintain the average citizen at his/her
current lifestyle. It allows the impact of human societies to be compared
to the earth's ability to support them. Conversion factors are applied
to figure the equivalent area of land used to provide: energy, built environment,
resources in services, agricultural goods, transportation, and consumer
goods.
Why is it important to understand the issue? What we do now is going to
have an effect on our families, our communities, the earth, and us. By
using up resources to satisfy our current needs we force later generations
to do without. All natural resources (the air we breathe, the water we
drink, the fuel (oil)to run our economy are not inexhaustible. These resources
support our current lifestyle. And their true cost is not shared in our
marketplace. The USA has 5% of the world population but uses over
30% of the world's resources. That can't go on forever. How can we
stop or slow the trend?
The free marketplace is remarkable for its ability to transfer goods in
an incredibly complex manner without much control. We do not want to "fix
something that isn't broken." Yet to produce the goods we trade in this
marketplace, we cause incredible degradation of our environment. We must
find a way to keep the free marketplace while we not only stop the ongoing
environmental degradation but also restore much of the damage that the
industrialized age has caused.
It would be impossible for most of the world ever to come close to living
the lifestyle Americans have now have. If everyone lived like the
average Canadian, it would take two additional earths to supply the needed
resources. This and many other reasons suggest we need to live our
lives more simply.
We can change our lives to live more simply by
- Know the company you are purchasing from. Do they operate
their business as a "green" business?
- Walk or take public transportation when possible.
- How many of our day-to-day activities use recycled instead of virgin
resources or minimize waste?
- Buy only the necessary, the highly beneficial, efficient, economical,
functional, and long lasting.
- Buy homes that are energy efficient, economical on upkeep, on land
that is environmentally sound, and socially beneficial
- Buy cars and other transporting vehicles for fuel efficiency and
environmental protections
- Buy goods and foods with as little packaging as necessary and carry
them in reuseable bags, plastics, or boxes.
- Clear up credit and save money.
- Compost at least garbage, leaves, and grass as much as possible
Even if every individual followed the above suggestions, our American
lifestyle and economy would still rely on nonrenewable, and mostly carbon-based
energy sources.
How can we change such established practices? Should we try?
Should we rely on technology to solve our problems?
Will this "issue" get better or worse as time goes on?
Consider these suggestions. Which of them would you support?
Instead of taxing income, tax polluters.
Put a sales tax on products that are intensively reliant on fossil fuels
(such as oil and coal), forests, chemical additives and fertilizers,
pesticides, and herbicides.
Make these "green taxes" high enough so that businesses want to change,
for the sake of efficiency and the bottom line, to practices that restore
the environment and do not exploit poor countries by using their resources.
Reward "green businesses." Give bonuses or credits to businesses that
establish cyclical processes (as nature does) so their products are
returned to be "mined" for reusable elements and no waste is created,
or whose business provides a service that restores the environment.
Affluenza , a PBS special, shows how a growing number of
Americans from across the economic and political spectrum are choosing
to become more conscious consumers and redefine the American Dream.
This film can be obtained from Bullfrog Films at (800) 543-FROG and viewer's
guide from the web atwww.pbs.org/affluenza
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