Wednesday, April 7, 2010
What's waste look like?
Faustian economics is an article that over describes waste, the author parallels countless examples most of which made no sense to me. For me waste, as Berry wants us to see it as, is like buying two of a specific item just for the sake of throwing one away. Like when you were young and sitting at the dinner table with your parents telling you not to leave until all of your food was gone and then feeding it to the dog under the table when no one was looking. Like taking you whole plate and dumping it in the garbage. It's when our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, we order so much food and then eat less than half of it all. Going to the supermarket when you're hungry and buying every possible thing imaginable and then a few weeks later you find that snack you bought and it goes right into the garbage,unopened and all because you know no ones ever going to eat it. This is how I think Berry describes waste in his article. We just want and want, but how much do we really need?
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mike, your definitely right with the idea that our "eyes are bigger than our stomachs". I feel that we are wasteful just for the sake of it. We take our resources and the goods that are available to us for granted. I also feel that our society doesn't preserve personal items as well as we should. For example, people are constantly buying new cellphones when they don't need to. We are obsessed over having the "next big thing." We are always looking for something new and we are never satisfied with what we already own.
ReplyDeletei thought i was alone when reading the article, Berry does use in-depth examples tat require careful reading to keep up. I've noticed this trend you describe about throwing away perfectly good food in the garbage in not so financially fit families. i like saving food, doggy bags was a genius invention and i take advantage anyway i can to save food. Since the standard of living for all americans have risen substantially over the last 20 years a lot of people feel like keeping old food is disgusting. dont get the wrong idea, when food is old it goes in the garbage but when it goes in the garbage because you dont like it in your fridge then its wasting.
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