It would be difficult to question the abundance of Things in America.\u00a0 Yes, I know, there are homeless people and most of them are hungry, and that is an unhappy situation.\u00a0 Especially considering the abundance I see everywhere.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For the last few months, I have had a steak for lunch every Friday, usually at Ruby Tuesday’s.\u00a0 Now, I know Ruby’s is not the only place I can do this.\u00a0 In fact, I went to Red Lobster instead a couple of weeks ago at Sam’s insistence.\u00a0 (She was paying, so it was an easy concession.)\u00a0 I also know I am not the only one ordering steaks at these places and the many others where it’s available.\u00a0 Then there’s the multitude of places one can order a burger.\u00a0 In short, that’s a lot of beef being eaten in this town and across the country every day.\u00a0 And yet, I cannot recall ordering a beef product and being told there wasn’t any available.\u00a0 I have to wonder where it all comes from.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yes, I know, it comes from cows.\u00a0 But that’s one hell of a lot of cows!\u00a0 Last year, Americans consumed almost twenty-six and a half billion<\/em> pounds of beef.\u00a0 To keep up with that, roughly one-thousandth of that number–a little over thirty-three and a half million<\/em>–cattle were slaughtered.\u00a0 Both of these numbers are on the rise, which means more cattle are being born and raised and more people are eating them.\u00a0 There’s no way around it; these are huge numbers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And that’s just beef!\u00a0 Look around at all the cars, motorcycles, bicycles and other things with metal and plastic in them.\u00a0 It astounds me that we–and I mean the whole human race at this point–manage to produce all of this stuff<\/em> over and over again.\u00a0 Walk into any mall and you’ll see what I mean.\u00a0 No storefront lacks for merchandise.\u00a0 Walk into one of the department stores and then think about the effort it takes to keep the store as well-stocked as it is.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The whole thing amazes me.\u00a0 It seems almost magical we can produce such great quantities of pretty much everything.\u00a0 If I invented the next greatest thing tomorrow and sold the concept a month later to a big corporation, it would be mass-produced and on shelves in great quantities by the end of the year.\u00a0 This happens over and over again.\u00a0 Not only do we have a lot of thing produced in great numbers, but we keep adding more things to produce!\u00a0 Sure, some of it drops off, but more gets made than stops getting made, by my observation.\u00a0 Look at the Slinky<\/em>:\u00a0 Sixty-some years after its creation, it is still selling strong.\u00a0 Things mostly don’t go away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So I sit here at my computer typing this blog on my ergonomic Microsoft keyboard.\u00a0 I have my Logitech trackball for a mouse and six monitors from four different companies.\u00a0 There’s a Logitech webcam staring at me from atop the bottom middle monitor.\u00a0 Most days of the week, I have at least one meal from a restaurant.\u00a0 I mention this not to brag, but to point out that even I, someone far closer to poverty than to riches, benefits from this country’s overabundance of stuff.\u00a0 I don’t even recycle, although I don’t hesitate to use recycled goods.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Speaking of which, here’s an idea:\u00a0 Recycle the landfills.\u00a0 Hell, recycle everything.\u00a0 There’s an abundance of metal and plastic and other things in them which could potentially be re-used.\u00a0 The nation has a shortage of jobs, so use a little federal fundage to hire jobless folks to sort through and take the stuff apart from the landfills.\u00a0 I am pretty sure they couldn’t keep up with the resupply of garbage, but still would add significantly to the recycle chain.\u00a0 It would be an ugly, unpleasant job, but it would<\/em> be a job.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There’s the other thing we have an abundance of:\u00a0 Jobs.\u00a0 I know, I know, there’s lots who would argue with that.\u00a0 But a ten percent unemployment rate means ninety percent of the country is gainfully employed.\u00a0 That’s a lot of people with a job.\u00a0 We complain about the pessimistic side of things, but it could be worse.\u00a0 Spain’s unemployment rate is twice that of the U.S.\u00a0 Get into a third world country and it gets even worse.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yet, there are jobs to be had.\u00a0 Check the classified ads, they are there.\u00a0 Sure, some of them require some steep qualifications, but they are still there.\u00a0 One more bit of abundance which makes me wonder where it all comes from.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That, as I mentioned early on, is where my sense of wonder is really triggered.\u00a0 All of the roads, particularly the paved ones; the buildings, large and small; the food in our restaurants and supermarkets; and so many other things in so many other places just amazes me sometimes.\u00a0 The centuries–nay, millennia–of blood, sweat and tears that made today<\/em> possible is fantastic.\u00a0 The world we live in didn’t happen overnight, but that doesn’t deter one bit how magical it all seems at times.\u00a0 And I like that magic.\u00a0 I’ll wander through another magical moment or two with you tomorrow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It would be difficult to question the abundance of Things in America.\u00a0 Yes, I know, there are homeless people and most of them are hungry, and that is an unhappy situation.\u00a0 Especially considering the abundance I see everywhere. 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