Uncle Sam's effluent society

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Uncle Sam's effluent society

ONLY IN AMERICA/CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA

 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2004 02:00:26 AM ]

 

Nearly half a century after liberal thinker and former US envoy to

India J K Galbraith's book The Affluent Society shaped American

governance, the land of milk and honey is apparently turning into

the land of soda and junk food.

 

A brilliant new report this week on America's consumer society by

the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute portrays, among other

things, a society struggling at the confluence of affluence and

effluence. Never, it seems, have so few people wasted so much.

 

Despite all the hoopla about growth in China and India, the US

remains at the top of the world's consumer spending. With only a 4.5

per cent share of world population, American share of world private

consumption expenditure was 30 per cent. In contrast, South Asia,

with 22.4 per cent of the world's population, had just 2 per cent

share of the world's private consumption expenditure.

 

The US is home to the largest consumer class worldwide, totalling

243 million people, or 84 per cent of the country's population. Just

a couple of metrics show the heights of American consumerism. The US

is home to a quarter of the world's cars. The country has more

private cars than people licensed to drive them. The average

American adult spends 72 minutes a day behind the wheel.

 

An estimated 65 million adults are overweight, leading to 300,000

deaths annually and over $100 billion in annual health care costs.

 

Americans spend a staggering $ 30 billion a year on toys. Children

on an average get 69 toys a year. The average US consumer purchases

48 new pieces of apparel a year. Americans spent a whopping $ 6.2

billion buying 478 million T-shirts in 2002. In 2001, Americans

bought 23 million new computers with similar numbers discarded.

Americans throw away an estimated 100 million plastic bags each year.

 

On three critical fronts - energy, food and water - Americans hogged

the most resources.

 

The US, with 4.5 per cent of world population, used a quarter of the

world's fossil fuel, burning 25 per cent of the coal, 26 per cent of

the oil, and 27 per cent of natural gas. In fact, the average

American consumes 20 times more energy than the average Indian.

 

Uncle Sam's effluent society

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2004 02:00:26 AM ]