The Dangers of Consumerism

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Recommended: Relationship between economic growth and the environment

Consumerism is the American thought process that drives the American economy. In one way or another every American citizen participates in the consumer economy, but the consumer based economy has many faults that come along with it. The most prominent issue is that the earth cannot support the current economic output, and the world’s resources are quickly dwindling. Every person can alter their lives in small and large ways that can improve the planets outlook but for true improvement the human race must pull together to change the way we consume as humans.
The world as a whole depletes far too many resources for the earth to replenish at the rate the world consumes the resources. Americans in particular, consume more than any other nation on the planet by a fairly considerable margin. If the entire world consumed resources at the same rate as the average American, 4 earths worth of resources would be needed to maintain a sustainable economy. Currently humanity as a whole is one and a half earths worth of resources, so that means humanity would have to cut is consumption by 33% to return to a level where the earth could replace its resources as quickly as humanity depletes the resources. Earth Overshoot day is a day that we pass every year, and when that day arrives it means humans have used all the resources that the earth can produce every year. This day has been occurring earlier every year, meaning we are moving in the wrong direction in terms of sustainability. The severity of the resource crisis is quickly getting worse and the need to alter our mindset as a species is becoming more imperative.
As an American, I already tend to consume more than the average human, but as an American I feel I consume at a fairly average leve...

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...ts became instantly noticeable and detracting from their lives and by then it will most likely be too late to repair the damage we have caused. People do not like to change their life styles and even if the entire world knew of all the damage being done by the current consumer economy most people would not alter their actions in any noticeable way.
The world is trapped by our own consumer economy. We are destroying our own world through our waste of resources and irresponsible spending. Yet we continue to buy and ignore all of the warning signs around us. Humans do not want to change their lifestyles and even if they did want to, switching to near complete sustainability is so difficult many people cannot make the change. People want to be responsible, except when being responsible includes making tremendous sacrifices to prevent issues that will never affect them.

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