Conspicuous Consumption ? (There ought to be a law about that!)

Member Name: Glasgow Girl

Product:	There ought to be a law about that!
Date:	20/12/01 (196 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's Good to KNow There are Some "Well-Off" People Out There !

Disadvantages: Conspicuous Consumption ?

I just ‘happened past’ dooyoo and caught sight of this excellent category.
My heartiest congratulations to whoever thought this one up!
Oh, how I have dreamed of such a category.
Well, put it this way – if I had thought about it for just a ‘little’ longer –
then I would have suggested it myself …

As I’ve spent the last few days ‘up to here’ with writing things out in longhand I thought I’d take this opportunity to do some typing and make sure, in the process, that my typing speed doesn’t go the way of my long-hand skills. ( as in, ‘down-the-pan’)
You see, I need to refresh my longhand skills for the up-coming exams.
The university, in its infinite wisdom, believes in encouraging we students to take up the challenge of burgeoning technologies, such as word processing, spreadsheets and the internet, however, it does not see fit to extend that encouragement to cover the exam criteria; therefore it’s back to good old ‘pen and ink’ for yours truly.

I digress.
Mine is not only a most relevant and current topic, it is one which we are all aware of in our day-to-day lives; if that is - we do not actually take part in the act ourselves.
The subject of which I speak is that of ‘waste’.

WASTE

W-A-S-T-E

Any way you say it, it always comes out the same.
Some people have got more money than sense.

How else can anyone explain the rampant amount of pure, unadulterated, wanton and thoughtless waste that is perpetrated day-and-daily on our high streets and, heaven forbid, possibly in our own homes!

Take a look around you the next time you are passing a MacDonald’s or any other of the large fast-food chains which are ubiquitous -there they are - on every high street in every town and city - not only in this land of ours, but across the entire world.

Loo
k in and what dooyoo see?
Plates -
left on tables
brimming with uneaten food.

Brimming with uneaten –
dare I say it?
Yes I doo.
Uneaten – expensive food.
uneaten – expensive - mass produced food -
left on the plates of brain-washed, -stressed-out and exploited customers.

If it was just an occasional occurrence, I wouldn’t mind quite so much – but it isn’t.
Every day – it’s there in front of me and in front of you …
unless, that is, it’s you that does this – this – this THING !

Have they no souls – these people who order-up food which they have little thought of eating?
Have they no souls – these people who regularly leave food on their plates which costs more money than it would take to feed an entire family for a whole day.
Have they no souls – these people who leave on their plates more food than I can afford to buy for my own dinner?
Have they no souls – these people who have no thought of where or how their ‘scraps’ will be disposed of?
Have they no souls – better yet – have they no money problems?

Is all this waste simply a sign of ‘conspicuous consumerism’?

Is it simply some sort of code?
A code which tells their fellow humans that they are richer and therefore better than anyone else?
It seems appropriate to ask – that - if this is how they treat their food … how then do they treat their families?
It might also be though significant to ask , how can they afford to do such a thing?

How is it possible for people to earn so much money, that a simple snack is paid for so carelessly, that the best part of it can be (equally carelessly) left for the staff to dispose of as they will?

You might well feel that I am whinging on about something insubstantial and without any true significan
ce.
I beg to differ.

Think for a minute.
Try to imagine all the waste that can be seen on our high streets on every day of the week multiplied by every fast-food outlet, restaurant and general eating area –
across the entire world.
Now tell me it is not important!

Merry Christmas. (?)
GG

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