The Logic Off Topic list

GAmoore@... wrote:

>>>What a stubbornly negative view.  Why does anyone  have to "come
>>>down"?
>>
>>Obviously because the planet's resources are not sufficient to allow
>>all humanity to live like Americans. I thought everybody knew that ...
>
>What is fundamentally different about the way Americans live compared to
>Europeans or Japanese? I really want to know this.

OK.
The US  covers nearly twice as much territory as Japan and Western Europe
combined. Americans are more spread out and travel more. This takes more
cars, trucks, trains,  planes, fuel, roads,  supply, infrastructure, air
conditioners and drive-thru convenience restaurants per unit population.

In any case, my initial reference was to 'Westerners' slipping a few notches,
and Europe (and in this case, Japan) fits in quite nicely.

>When I was in Japan in the
>very hot and humid summer, you could walk by store after store with the
>entire front of the store open to the street ... with the Air conditioner
>running full blast cooling all of nature, and then there are American trees
>cut down, sent to Japan, and turned into throw away chopsticks..

Examples of the free market and globalisation at work...

>Given the
>chance, any other country would consume just as much as the US

So lets see who on the planet can consume the most then, the free
market will be happy to see us try.

>On the other hand, the Arab/Islam world is largely poor except for certain
>people in certain oil countries. And yet they don't make much effort to start
>businesses or farms, or create seed money that will lead to economic
>prosperity.

Hmmm...Maybe that's a good thing. After all, Bin Laden is a direct
benefactor of
of an Arab business enterprise.

OK. I'm clearly being sarcastic now...I must sleep
(after another round of self flaggelation of course ;)

S.