Americans Spend 1.2 Trillion Annually On Nonessentials

http://www.becomingm.../clutter-stats/
http://www.dailymail...ilies-home.html

The average person in the world now lives on $1,300.oo annually and only 13 countries even make a total of $2 trillion dollars in their entire economy, yet, American spent $1.2 trillion a year on nonessential items alone and merely donate 1.9% of their income to charity. In the last ten years illegal aliens in the US have helped to double the amount of money sent to other countries around the world to some 530 billion which is a growing phenomena around the globe today and is three times the amount spent on all the foreign aid by the combined world governments. Part of this is the increasing mass migration of refugees from war torn and global warming disasters such as the mass migration of Africans into Europe in recent decades as the water has dried up. Along with these changes which include organizations such as Grameen Bank and the entire micro-lending movement which has dedicated themselves to ending destitute poverty in the next fifty years, what is to come in the near future should eclipse all efforts in the past.

In particular, the advent of high tech is making everything incredibly cheaper including new 3D printers that can spit out an entire earthquake proof house complete with all the wiring and plumbing in a matter of hours. A ten million prize awaits the first medical tricorder that utilizes AI to diagnose diseases better than most doctors and already the first handheld spectrometers and scientific tricorders are being developed. Companies like Google and others are spreading the worldwide web sometimes for free and the technology to cheaply rewire the entire planet in every way imaginable for even terabit bandwidths should be developed sometime in the next few decades. People have even figured out how to desalinate and clean water wherever any river empties into the sea as a sort of battery to produce the required power.

What everyone is still waiting on is the first reel to reel printing and self-assembling technologies to come on the scene where things like a computer, TV, or solar power cell that can be printed out like so many newspapers by the tens of thousands of editions overnight. Already someone has just produced the first promising research on a laptop computer screen that offsets its own power requirements by collecting energy as well as emitting light. The first obvious steps in this direction will become apparent within three years as supercapacitors come on the scene allowing people to charge their cellphone for a week and half or more in 30 seconds flat or recharge an electric vehicle in less time than it takes to fill up your tank. Theoretically, there's no reason most appliances cannot be self-powered or connected without requiring any wiring at all to a central home supercapacitor smaller than a hot water heater and, eventually, even connected using quantum entanglement that dispenses with the need for any power wiring or electromagnetic broadcasting whatsoever in a house.

With the advent of high tech including AI, robotics, and 3D printing and self-assembly of anything, including printing entire houses, the entire world as we know it is about to be radically transformed, re-wired, and re-organized in every way imaginable as people begin to leverage the full potential of the information age. Swarm technology and the advances in AI mean the machines themselves are taking on a life of their own and the trick-down effect of technology will prove to be one of the saving graces of consumer culture always waiting for everything to become cheaper by empowering the few to make up for the glutinous behavior of the many. Still, the shit is obviously going to hit the fan in the coming decades and humanity will require every advantage it can muster.

 

Didn't read. To the thread title, which may or may not relate to the 5page rant... I think some spending on non-essentials is inevitable. I was resenting all the fast food commercialism just the other day!

 

What is a non essential? If I am going to play hockey then hockey equipment would sure be essential.

 

We might as well enjoy not living in poverty while we still can!

 

Maybe that's why people are lining up to come to America, legally or otherwise. Which is amazing when you consider how the US is packed to the gills with evil racists. Or maybe they come here for the sluts. America has some of the most amazing sluts in the world. Easily 3/4 of Americans have their first sexual encounter with a slut, God bless 'em!!

 

Nonessentials include throwing away an average of 64 pounds a year of clothing for every man, woman, and child and buying things like jewelry, toys, and enough TVs for every man, woman, and child to have more than one. American children, for example, own some 40% of all the toys in the world even though they are only some 3% of the world's population of kids with even European children owning perhaps 40 toys to the average American kid's 240. Likewise, American women now commonly own a different dress for every day of the month. Such things are clearly in excess merely because all roads lead to Rome and Americans have created the biggest consumer population on the planet.

 

Many have noted that white girls in particular are slutty and that this is in no small part due to rampant consumerism with women's heals, for example, getting higher the closer they live to a major urban center. As Mick Jagger put it so well, "American girls want everything in the world you can possibly imagine!" I lived in Hawaii for six years and some of the beaches are something to behold in the middle of winter when they become three solid miles of California secretaries and trophy wives all sunning themselves like so many seals without a single man in sight. Often they prefer to chase after men in the tourist industry than others merely looking for a fling without any entanglements.

 

Nonessential is subjective to the lifestyle you live.

 

I don't care who the hell you happen to be, nobody needs to own a diamond mine just for the essentials.

 

Then I suggest you do not purchase one.

 

So good to know who I can go to for useful advice.

 

There is no dispute that we tend in the western world to be wasteful. What each person feels that is, is going to greatly vary. To throw away the crusts or ends of the bread would be unacceptable to someone who has to watch their food budget closely. To own more than one car is extravagant to some or to even own one. To others having a luxury home and two cars is exactly why they work and what they choose to spend money on.

What we personally feel is wasteful or extravagant will be personal.

Should we be more aware, of course. Will we, for the most part, probably not.

 

The entire system is set up to encourage extravagant spending and consumption with many of the wealthier Americans spending more than they actually make because keeping up the Jones is an integral aspect of how they earn a living in the first place.

 

I lived in Aiea, Pearlridge Square a block from the Kamehameha drive-in theater for a couple of years in the early 80s. I've seen exactly what you mean. All a guy had to do was walk the beach asking girls out. If it didn't happen on the first pass, just start from the beginning and do it again. Since I prefer chubby gals, I seemed to do better with the tourists from Canada and Alaska. When I lived in Houston I enjoyed shopping at Fiesta Mart because most of the Hispanic girls dressed like absolute whores, no matter what their build. It was most excellent. Personally, I don't care what color the sluts are, I'm just happy they are so free and open minded.

 

Walmart has become a popular pick up joint in many locations. Its just easier to take your pick if you have a larger selection and low, low prices.

 

Classy!

 

Americans invented baseball, hot dogs, reality TV, and the modern stock market, about as lowbrow as it gets!

 

$1.2 trillion spend and not a single thank you from any country from which we import all the crap.

 

Actually didn't the Brits invent reality TV? We just copy their shows and prove that some people will watch anything no matter how mindless.

 

I think reality tv could have been news and them sensationalized it ... but the first reality tv show was American and was back in 1983 I forget what it was called, inspired real worlds on MTV. The Netherlands created big brother back in 1999 and it became a franchise. The show cops that started in the 80s could be considered reality tv too... perhaps the very first silent film could be called reality movie ... it was of two people having sex, yep it was porn. the first silent film was and I don't think there was a script, they just did what came naturally on silent film. Would that be reality? I don't think you can get more real than that.