Does the American Dream promotes more consumption, thus more pollution?

Question

The economy is bad partially because consumer confidence is low. We mostly buy things to help the economy and live the American dream. However, every product we purchase uses energy and resources to make, package, transport, store and sometimes use. I can’t help to think that I don’t need my Nintendo DS, 42 inch plasma TV and other worldly materials. Am I crazy to feel this way or is it normal? I want the American Dream but not as the risk of the earth.

Answer 1

People want nice stuff.  Besides if you don't buy stuff then companies aren't making it and jobs will disappear.

Answer 2

YES, we are bombarded thousands of times a day and told to buy, buy, buy and go into debt to help the economy. I think that is why so many people thing that it is too expensive to "go green". The US uses dramatically more energy, creates more garbage and has more things than any other nation on the planet. We have families that are struggling financially, yet they feel the need and the pressure to buy expensive clothes for their children so they will fit in. We have families that can't afford health care yet they have cable and internet, these are now seen as necessities of life. Low income families eat more convenience and prepackaged food which is more expensive, has more packaging and has less nutrition than fresh foods. Too many people fall for the marketing scams that give percieved value. Having coupons or seeing mark downs make the item seem less expensive.

I have found my grocery bill is much lower now that I buy more fresh unprocessed foods with less packaging. I buy many of my items in the bulk bins. I've been criticized by family that think this is gross, they would rather have there chemical laden hermatically sealed products with a catchy commercial.

I think we are likely to see people rethink their spending habits and find that they can do without much of the things they considered necessities.

Answer 3

YES I believe so too!

I feel much more in synch with the US (I'm totally American) in times like this when our economy is poor and nationally we're in a savings effort, reducing unnecessary consumption.  

Answer 4

Don't worry. Keep buying. We're Americans. That makes us get ultimate authority over everything. s***w the human rights and environmental consequences. The companies and the government will do that for you. Just keep buying.

Answer 5

Absolutely. We are taught that consumerism and stuff indicate wealth and success. Also, we live in a capitalistic system in which growth is a necessary component. All of these activities use up natural resources and produce waste.

Less is more, unless you are talking about compassion, health, love, and other qualities. Not to get all biblical, but you can't take it with you. I wish the American Dream would shift and get more towards inner wealth, instead of outer...the stuff doesn't make us happy anyway.

Answer 6

The U.S. signed the Kyoto Protocol, it subsequently declined to ratify the pact, objecting to the lack of limits on developing countries' emissions and to the harm the protocol's constraints were expected to cause the U.S. economy. For the pact to go into effect, it had to be ratified by developed countries accounting for at least 55 percent of total industrialized-nation greenhouse gas emissions. As a result of the rejection of the accord by the U.S., the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases, this threshold was not reached until late 2004. The protocol finally went into force in February 2005, and as of late 2006 more than 160 nations had become parties to it. Among those that had not ratified the agreement, and thus were not bound by its terms, were the U.S. and Australia.

Answer 7

Hi,

The answer is Yes, to be able to understand where it comes from, I suggest to read or "listen" a publication known as "The master of enterprise" - American Business History And The People Who Made It. This is about 14 lectures easy to understand by The Modern Scholar Audiobooks.

There's a very interesting chapter that talks about how the US turned from PRODUCTION TO CONSUMPTION.

American producers were producing more than enough to match American's level of consumption.

American's were never seen as consumers until the early 20th century.

After the WWI, Americans began to turn inward and became more concern about consumerism.

Pollution is the consecuence of a high enviromental unsustain production, factories need energy and discharge of their waste, on the other hand, people need vehicles to commute since eventually populations grew in a fast pace, and us, the final consumer of products, the american people got into a point to be able to use disposable cash and that's what we see nowaways.

You are not crazy, you grew up surrounded by an enviroment that continuously threw bombs for you to accept consumption as a normal behavior. There is a biographical characteristic that shapes our behavior, there is a lot of shaping behavior around us. I suggest you to review another lecture about Human Behavior, you can find it at psicology, anthropology, sociology and social psycology books.

I found this link for a quick reference:

http://www.bfskinner.org/f/Science_and_H...

I hope that can help you.

Ref:

Organizational Behavior

Robbins - Judge

Prentice Hall

The Master of Enterprise

The Modern Scholar

Answer 8

The American dream does indeed promote having the best things money can get you, a nice house, a good car, education, etc. thus people feel the need to buy buy buy, comsume comsume consume.  You know it takes just as much out of the enviroment to make pens, everypart is from different places and you need to ship each part to one factory or whatever to put all the peices together so i wouldnt feel to ashamed to want to have a big tv or nintendo.  BUt i am sure that it is quite possible for you to be able to achieve the Amerian Dream but by being smart about what your driving what materials are being used in your house or material possesions.  The thing is just be concious of what is going on around you.

Good Luck!

Answer 9

The American dream does not fit at all into this discusion .

End of subject.