Jeffrey Sachs's A Nation Of Vidiots

In A Nation of Vidiots, universally acclaimed economic advisor, Jeffrey Sachs offers his hypercritical views on the negative side effects of electronic use by means of computers, video games, smartphones, and especially TV. Throughout its entirety, Sachs makes countless arguments based partially on his opinion. It is clear not only throughout this entire passage, but immediately apparent by his appellation, that he indeed views technically minded people as video idiots. He further reveals that it is his perspective that often times, the more technology one partakes in, the poorer they are. Perhaps blinded by his own disdain, Jeffrey Sachs gives insight of his notion that unhealthy, poor, uneducated people should look no further than their

He does make some valid points in referring to the fact that many Americans do indeed face health issues and obesity to some degree. Nevertheless, he himself points out in paragraph 3 on page 441, that the very data he is basing his rant on is “somewhat sketchy and incomplete” (Sachs, 441). He continues to proclaim that TV viewing is bad for one’s physical and mental health and states that “roughly two-thirds of the US population is overweight” ( 442). Yet again in this same paragraph, he admits that many factors contribute to this epidemic, including diets consisting of unhealthy choices. It seems that Sach’s claims may be somewhat

He states “when a commodity’s consumption falls as income rises, economists call it an “inferior” good”( 442 ). These remarks feel in some regard as though Sachs feels a sense of superiority over those who choose to own a TV. One could counter that in order to own several TV’s, such as to fill every room in the house they would in turn need the monetary ability to purchase said TV’s. The very name of the survey by the organization Common Sense Media in which Sachs chose to support bleeds insult and he even concedes that their findings were a “paradox”, which is that children in poorer American households watch more TV than children in wealthy households and are shown to even have televisions in their own rooms. If Sachs was trying to make a point other than to expose that wealthier children have access to greater things other than TV, it was somehow