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compassion
April 2008 
The 5/25 Problem and why the World Hates Us
Posted on Dec 29th, 2007
by 
Jeff
Jeff
I have heard many times that the USA population is about 5% of the global population. We represent 5% of humanity and it's been said that we consume 25% of the Earth's resources. I don't have a hard core citation to prove this is true, I only have a gut feeling that this is very true.
Tonight I decided to personalize this. I have a 9-year old son, so to make it personal, consider this:
This makes me want to puke. No wonder many throughout the world hates us.
Everyone in the world wants to come to the USA to be just like us. The problem is, our model of excessive consumption and waste is not a good model to adopt. 50,000 people die every day from starvation and preventable illness, while we stress out over what color our new SUV should be, or how big the HDTV should be. It's wrong...just wrong.
Tonight I decided to personalize this. I have a 9-year old son, so to make it personal, consider this:
- We place 100 nine year old kids in a line
- The first 5 kids (the USA) gets 5 bottles of water each
- The next 75 kids get one bottle of water each
- The remaining 20 kids get no water.
This makes me want to puke. No wonder many throughout the world hates us.
Everyone in the world wants to come to the USA to be just like us. The problem is, our model of excessive consumption and waste is not a good model to adopt. 50,000 people die every day from starvation and preventable illness, while we stress out over what color our new SUV should be, or how big the HDTV should be. It's wrong...just wrong.
Access: Public
Jeff,
I am in total agreement with you… we suck literally :-)
Everyone in the world wants to come to the USA to be just like us. The problem is, our model of excessive consumption and waste is not a good model to adopt.
create vs consume
gg
Thanks for your comment. This lifestyle is not a good example and it really needs to end. I'm all in favor of everyone living a prosperous life, but not at the expense of others. As children we were all taught to share and that's a good thing.
GG, please don't forget. Tell others, get involved, make a difference. Don't just think about doing something to change the world, do something about it. I spent a year as a Zaadz member, waiting for someone else to change the world, so I could follow them. It never happened.
You are an instrument of change.
Namaste
Jeff,
I agree with you, there is a great deal of inequality in the world and we are on the fat end of the stick. However, I think overall Americans donate more to charity than any other nation. To the extent the world hates us (and many nations do) I think it has more to do with the way our government throws its weight around militarily, propping up nations we support and taking out those we don't, that has earned us such a nasty reputation.
Julie