Dieting takes up such a big proportion of people’s lives today. While some people are dying from starvation in other counties, Americans enjoy overwhelming food consumption with the help of capitalism. We try to diet for our health and outward appearance.
As the quantity of food available to people in America increases, the value of food decreases. I first realized this problem when I saw the people in Wrap World in West End Market throwing whole packs of tortillas away because it was not strong enough to wrap food inside. It’s understandable in the business’s point of view. The seller should serve the customer the best product. However, I don’t agree with it personally. Children who die every day from starvation wouldn’t care about eating a broken wrap. As a result of capitalism, the quality of the food that fits to the taste of people is increased with the higher price. Then people start to eat the type of food that they want to eat. They try to consume necessary nutrients by taking supplements such as vitamin C, or they even take pills for diet and digestion.
I heard about some people who took invalid diet pills that they bought from the Internet and got injured. An unbalanced diet by eating certain foods and consuming necessary nutrients by taking additional supplements is right behind the enjoyment of overwhelming food consumption. We should value food highly and improve diet by changing eating habits, not relying on supplements.
Hyung Jin Ahn
freshman
general engineering major
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Was there some kind of point to this?
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People starve to death while Americans take food for granted? Yes I understand the point but it is the nature of the world, ever heard of survival of the fittest?
Are we supposed to turn away from prosperity and take lower quality food in order to feed the world? What happens when we send crates of food to a place like Somalia and militias deny the food to the starving people anyway?
It is not simple, and it is also not disrespectful to live a lifestyle in a country that is prosperous.
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Throwing away tortillas has absolutely nothing to do with starvation in Africa. There is not a finite amount of food in the world that Americans are going around wasting for no other reason than we are greedy capitalists. The world actually has the capacity to produce much more food than every human alive could eat, and the problems of poverty and stavation are a little more complicated than a ripped tortilla being thrown in the trash on a college campus. It's important to be appreciate what you have and limit waste, but it's also important to be realistic about serious economic problems.
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This is the only way people can attack freedom and capitalism - through logical fallacies. See also: Michael Moore's new movie. There is no argument against freedom, liberty, the free market, capitalism, etc. -- unless you advocate control as you try to treat the symptoms of a problem. See also: the smoking ban.
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