Our man in America: Paradise of consumption where 1 in 6 go hungry

Created: 2009-11-24, Updated: 2009-11-24 1:41:58

Author:Wan Lixin

Editor's note:

Shanghai Daily columnist Wan Lixin is now on a three-month journalism program in Virginia, United States. This is his second article giving his impressions.

IN a recent editorial (November 17) USA Today cited a 2005 data showing China as the world's biggest greenhouse gases emitter (19.12 percent), surpassing the 18.44 percent from the US.

China's fame as the world's factory rests heavily on big-spending America, and as we can now see, any fluctuations in American consumption can lead to serious consequences.

But some statistics can be misleading. Should the carbon footprint be traced to the end consumers as well as the producers? This paradise of consumption is a land of plenty, of overnutrition.

The financial crisis revealed that some well-paid professionals had been engaged in sophisticated, but dishonest work, and in my limited experience here in the US I saw that most non-sophisticated, manual labor is assigned to those who speak broken English. And this at a time when people talk about double-digit unemployment.

In normal, more ideal conditions such people should be more concerned about their ability to feed themselves, and apparently some Americans pretend they are.

Also on November 17, in a report titled "1 in 6 hungry in America last year," USA Today claimed that 49 million people in American households went hungry at some point in 2008, the highest since such figures were available since 1995, reflecting the recession's toll.

A fellow Chinese remarked with sarcasm that these hungry Americans are likely those who cannot have the kind of food they like. As a matter of fact, even though energy is getting more and more expensive, the US still gives the impression of a land of unlimited energy supply.

When we first arrived in the US, as the arrangement for our accommodation had not been settled, some of us were temporarily put up in a hotel.

On entering the hotel, the first feature striking me is that the hotel room does not have the energy-saving gadget where you automatically start or cut the whole power supply in the room as you insert or remove the key there. Nearly all Chinese hotels have this simple, energy-saving apparatus.

I also find that the hotel window cannot be opened to let in some fresh air outside. We are forced to rely on air-conditioning for ventilation.

A few days later, when we moved into an apartment, I found that the apartment is equally devoid of that key-triggered, energy-saving feature, and the whole apartment, complete with bedrooms, drawing room and kitchen, is controlled by one air-conditioning thermostat. And the power and water fees are included in a fixed sum of rental.

Placebos aplenty

A few years ago a friend of mine who had just arrived in an American university observed to me that many of his classmates left their dorms with air-conditioners running, even when they had left for school. I guess that kind of excess is probably due to a similar pay arrangement.

There are placebos aplenty, if you desire. From time to time you espy a brand new bus, usually not in service or half empty, with oversized letters on its sides reading: "This bus is running on clean natural gas." The stove in our kitchen is running on electricity, not clean natural gas.

This nation is assigned the sacred duty of consuming the world out of its recession.

But the fever for consumption is catching on. A guide told us that recently a group of Chinese snapped up 20 bags from a luxury brand shop in Washington, DC, effectively wiping out the stock.

These bags are priced in hundred of dollars, but each buyer is breathless with excitement, as they murmur to themselves, "These are real bargains -- they are worth several thousand yuan more back home."

How much of the exorbitant label value will ultimately trickle down to the modest bag, and then further to the invisible multitudes who actually make the modest bags?

On this point an MBA professor is probably eager to lecture you on the value of branding.

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