More and More

Please don't start thinking I take only an un-nuanced, flag-waving view of America. I never knew what everyone was talking about when they said that once you left your country for a foreign one, you appreciated America so much more. I appreciated certain things about America - actual diversity, a respect for forming a line, professors who don't assign you books that are out of print, bookstores where you can actually buy your textbooks (no hunting in 15 different bookstores around the city), over the counter acne medication, etc. Weird what you appreciate, isn't it? Maybe if I had been in Mali or Vietnam I would have thought about it differently. There are fewer amenities there. But France was great.

One thing I hate about America is how easy it is to be fat. Our gluttonous attitude of "more is more" makes us eat more, buy more, use more, throw away more. I'm in a constant war with myself over "I NEEEEED this!" and "Don't be a conspicuous consumer! It all eventually goes to the trash anyway!" I was buying some items in the drugstore today and really attempted to limit myself to the smaller package of what I needed - it's difficult, because in America we're taught that more is less expensive. It probably is, but then we have so much crap lying around. Don't get me wrong, I love Costco (great olive oil!), but do I really need 14 razor heads for my razor? Or 2 gallons of mayonnaise?

This slide show in Forbes online illustrates the point quite nicely. Look how expensive it is to eat healthily! I was relieved to see that the average single American spends $54.44 a week on food - I thought this was crazy, but apparently I'm relatively normal. I aim for more in the $30 range, but you can only eat so many pounds of rice and beans. Life of a grad student. In any case, these diets are pricey. Now, the slide show says that the cost is based on New York City prices, which means you can subtract about 15-20 from the total bill to see what it would cost in your area, but they're still well over what the average American spends on food. And yet how much of our population is considered obese? I think 2/3rds are overweight, and 1/3 of that is obese, or something like that. And it's not because people are eating good food. It's because good food is just so damn expensive. Combine that with a "more more more" American attitude (hey, we power the economy! by going ridiculously into debt! yayayayay!), and you get a lot of fat people. I think everyone should just take up smoking again. It's so much cooler than being fat.

By the by, I have been writing my blog entries in Writely, and I love it. It's a web-based word processor, so it gives you the feeling that you're working on your computer at home, but with more mobility. In any case, it doesn't seem to allow me to post titles, so.. I apologize. The entries have had titles, but whatever. I'm sure you could really care less. But in any case, check out Writely. It wrocks. Hahahaha.