I have heard many times that Americans (of which I am one) as a percent of the worlds population (~5%) consume 80% of the "resources" whatever they may be. Sometimes the number is 70%, sometimes 90%. This statement is usually delivered to make us feel bad about our grossly overconsumeristic lifestyle. This got me to thinking. Where does this statistic come from and what "resources" comprise it? Is it based on the typical household consumption of typical individuals, not the entire consumption of the country as a whole (e.g. business and industry)? I look at my lifestyle as a comfortable middle income American and try to imagine how different it must be from a comfortable middle income European or citizen of any developed nation. Do I eat all that much more than them? Do I drive all that much more? Do I need more toilet paper than them? Do they not heat their homes in the winter? Or cool them in the summer? What makes me so much worse than the citizens of the rest of the world? Here's what I think. I think that individuals the world over are more or less the same in their consumption of "resources" given a comparable lifestyle. I think the statistic is based on our consumption as a nation and misapplied to individuals. And then, if we do consume all of these "resources", what are we doing with them? Do we not produce more food per acre for export than any other country? Is our industrial output of material goods, exported worldwide, still not the largest (although dwindling)? What do you all think? And do you have any links to solid information regarding the consumption vs. output of various nations and their people?
in my opinion all developed countries are pretty much the same consumerwise it's when you compare the US or another developed country to a third world country do you come up with the 70 or 80% figure it has to do mostly with our "throwaway" society. also with point of manufacture to point of consumer. for example electricity. it is 'manufactured' at a certain place then transmitted to the point of use, along the way you incur losses. the same can be said of almost anything. another example is grain storage. we store grain in gigantic silos to be used all over the world, the stored grain is prone to infestation by all manner of vermin which results in losses another place where losses occur is mass production for example the mass production of fish fillets result in tremendous losses. and of course we have packaging i cannot go to the store and buy anything that doesn't have a peice of paper to be thrown away so when you look at all of these you can tell that america would be better at storing grain than a third world country but worse at throwing away paper products
