On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 11:57 AM, Jim Devine <[email protected]> wrote: > Please do not put "other words" in my mouth. I don't know anything > about (and thus have no brief against) Ms. Roy, so I was not talking > about her here, but about your translation of her words into other > terms. On the other hand, I do reject the elitist approach exemplified > by her original "stop eating so much, you dumb shit" comment.
You think Roy's exclamation is moralistic and elitist. I think you are wrong. I don't care to discuss this point further because (a) we are not going to convince each other and (b) who cares if she is moralist or whatever? The only thing that matters is, is she *right*? In other words, do Americans, in fact, over-consume? I sense that the very question causes a lot of discomfort to PEN-Lers. But I also think it is an important question, so I'll persist just a little bit more and offer a summary. (1) Is the question poorly-defined or otherwise meaningless? In my opinion, no. It is possible for a question to be vague, yet easily and precisely answered. For e.g. "Is Bill Gates a rich man?" (2) But American workers are more productive, so they earned the right to a higher consumption level. Productivity statistics do not account for a lot of externalities. (Many of which, incidentally, make non-American workers appear less productive than others.) (3) But surely the inflated productivity numbers are all on the unproductive (in the Marxian sense) sector of the economy, like finance. Surely, if you exclude those, the average American worker earned his/her right to a high consumption level? Does the average GM worker productivity figures include what it costs to maintain the interstate highways? Does Exxon workers' productivity figures include what it costs to clean up the Valdez? The externalities can't so easily be assigned to only certain narrow sectors. (4) Isn't it unfair to criticize the consumption patterns of the working class while the elite over-consume a hell of a lot more and also indirectly encourage over-consumption on the part of the average person for their own benefit. I completely agree. But we can surely make this case openly instead of claiming that there is nothing unsustainable or wrong about the consumption patterns of the average person! -raghu. -- "When I die, I'm leaving my body to science fiction." - Steven Wright _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
