Waste Not, Want Not

The wasteful attitude of the American society has reached a level of absurdity hitherto unmatched, or so it seems to me.

Here’s an example for you. Last week Yahoo News reported that Mitt Romney, that political candidate for presidential campaigns, intended to raze his $12 million home in California to build a bigger, more costly model.

When I read this assertion, my question flag began flapping in the breeze. If this person ever made it into the White House, what perfectly good taxpayer item would he raze in order to spend even more taxpayer money for vanity’s sake? I also asked myself how anyone could be so wasteful in the face of the current economy.

A couple of days later my sister and I returned home from the grocery store, frustrated and irate. We commented—okay, we complained—about the current price of fresh produce. We understand all the arguments about supply and demand, etc. Those weren’t the questions we were discussing.

Instead, we discussed the question of how those who were on restricted diets for medical reasons, like diabetes and heart disease, were expected to afford the continuing price increases with a shrinking dollar. On the tail of that question was another one that asked, perhaps, an even more critical question. How can grocers dispose of perfectly good produce at the end of a work day by throwing it into dumpsters in the back alley?

NAW, you say. Unfortunately, that is a practice that’s been going on for years. If I had the time, I’d research out the mandates of health departments and USDA rulings to uote those covering the length of time fresh produce can be displayed in stores before mandatory disposal. If you stop to think about how grocers display produce, you’ll quickly figure out why such foods have a limited shelf life.

Okay, back to the subject. One of the aspects of this questionable practice that really angers us is that we don’t hear about any grocers who relieve themselves of this frequent burden of fresh food by donating it—as a charitable contribution, no less—to homeless shelters, women’s shelters, prisons, schools, etc.

I realize that for prisons and schools and any other institution that accepts moneys from the federal government, the red-tape necessary for such donations makes such generosity nigh on to impossible. But, organizations like Meals-On-Wheels, and shelters could certainly use the boost, as could local food banks.

For some obscure reason Americans with lots extra to give to solving public problems have become some of the greediest and least likely of proponents to be potential problem solvers.

We waste nearly everything. We build in obsolescence so that the consumer much replace items more often, which, in turn, ensures continued product sales and job security. We’ve fallen for the hook dangled by fashionistas so that something we bought last year is no longer wearable today, even though we’ve rarely worn it.

We’ve become stingy, grasping, and greedy, all of which leads to wastefulness. We’ve ignored the waste so long that we aren’t aware of it anymore. Case in point: current new story on Yahoo News today.  Brand new hotel–never had a guest—has an owner threatening to tear it down because of disillusionment, economic downturn, and litigation between owner MGM and the building’s construction company.

Arguments of construction issues and reduced total size have wrangled on until the wrecking ball may have to come in. No one seems to have addressed, at least publicly, all those condo owners that were planning to live at that location. What happens to their tidy little investments?

Perfectly good office buildings, apartment buildings, and vacated (foreclosed) homes seem to go to waste, as well, while not in use.

So, tell me peeps. What do you think about the rising examples of extravagance gone wild and waste on the rise? When did you buy your phone? Planning on buying a new one soon? Just curious.

Until later, a bientot,

Claudsy