Eat the rich!

[4Runninfun]

The following video features Tony Robbins discussing our national debt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jboTeS9Okak

[Heather]

Putting the numbers into time perspective is STILL so hard to comprehend...and absolutely mind-boggling.

[Funrover]

In spirit of keeping political talks to a low. Thanks for this post!

[4Runninfun]

In spirit of keeping political talks to a low. Thanks for this post!

Exactly, just posting so that it will give people something to think about.

[Brody]

We need to get past the idea that as long as we have the special paper we print money on, the printing presses, and molds to print it, we still have money, whether or not we have anything to back the money up with. It is like owning 50 refrigerators with no food in them....

A lot more to it than that, but that seems to be the thinking process behind it....if you can call that thinking. It has always blown me away that we, as a nation that constitutes 5% of the population, consume 24% of the energy....

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Consumption
by the United States
In the United States:

Reducing consumption without reducing use is a costly delusion. If undeveloped countries consumed at the same rate as the US, four complete planets the size of the Earth would be required. People who think that they have a right to such a life are quite mistaken.

Americans constitute 5% of the world's population but consume 24% of the world's energy.

On average, one American consumes as much energy as

2 Japanese

6 Mexicans

13 Chinese

31 Indians

128 Bangladeshis

307 Tanzanians

370 Ethiopians

The population is projected to increase by nearly 130 million people - the equivalent of adding another four states the size of California - by the year 2050.

Forty percent of births are unintended.

Americans eat 815 billion calories of food each day - that's roughly 200 billion more than needed - enough to feed 80 million people.

Americans throw out 200,000 tons of edible food daily.

The average American generates 52 tons of garbage by age 75.

[RockyMtnHigh]

The average American generates 52 tons of garbage by age 75.

So what are you and Chris up to now, 60 tons? :lmao:

[4Runninfun]

While I certainly agree that as a society we have many areas to reduce our energy output I think those numbers you put up are a little misleading. What I'm guessing they did to come up with those numbers it take the entire energy output of the nation as a whole, and then divide by the number of people. This statistical method is far from accurate. For instance, how much energy does it take to run Las Vegas for a year? Do you visit LV on an annual basis? (I'm actually laughing as I type that) Of course not, and neither do I so who's to say that should added to my total annual energy usage? Lets also consider another example, if someone goes into the hospital and needs to get an MRI, CAT, or any of the other various high dollar high energy scans how to you compare that to a country that doesn't have any, or a very limited amount? Would you pull those test from hospitals? Or be thankful that there is a country in which you can go and get access to one. One last example, consider the landmass of the US, and the acreage of the cities. Next think about how many street lights are currently in use. Just that job in and of itself consumes massive amounts of elect. So while Europe lights its cities at night it doesn't have nearly the sq miles to light.

Again not saying that as a country we shouldn't reduce our energy consumption, just pointing out that raw numbers don't necessarily accurately reflect the whole story.

[Brody]

Just pulled them off a couple of internet sites....and you know what that means....I think I have read "Generation of Swine" (Hunter S. Thompson) too many times....I have read numbers as high as 80% as far as American consumption vs the rest of the world, so this is actually a bit on the low side compared to that.