Waste not, want not. As true today as it ever was.
Unfortunately, society has become very good at wasting just about everything.
We waste food, we waste time, energy, and attention. We even waste each other.
Waste costs a lot of money in lost resources and materials, but also in lost labor hours to produce that waste. One of the big reasons we have so many problems is that we waste the resources available to us.
We’re so accustomed to our wasteful lifestyle that we don’t even realize how much damage it is doing to us and the planet.
It’s time to wake up and smell our garbage. We need to stop being so God-dammed wasteful.
This is basically how we collectively spend a whole lot of our time:
All This Waste Is Such a Shame
We certainly have perfected the art of wasting things in our society. Throwaway items used once and disposed of; single-use packaging, designed to be discarded right away; a near-constant supply of new items replacing the (sometimes barely) used ones already owned – these are just some of the many ways our society wastes away resources.
And it’s not just “stuff” – it’s people, time, attention, and money. We spend more time obsessing and arguing about nonsense than we spend talking about what matters.
We throw out caution when it comes to our use of these resources, only occasionally pausing to consider what their universal misuse could mean for our future. It is irresponsible, wasteful, and unsustainable – yet our love affair with discarding continues unabated.
What are some of our favorite ways to waste?
The Federal Debt: Our Trillion-Dollar Problem
Office Politics
Incompetent Leaders
The Plastic Island is an Embarrassment
Inequality
The Health Care Crisis
The Planet is Dying
So Much Anger
Crime and Violence
Are We Headed for Another World War?
Division Like Crazy!
“The great tragedy in America today is not waste of our natural resources. The real tragedy is the waste of human resources.”-Oliver Wendel Holmes
Some Causes of Waste
It seems the world has found an amazing new way to recycle: throw things away! Everywhere you turn, people are getting rid of their unwanted clothes, uneaten food, and outdated electronics.
While it’s certainly easier, this one-time-use system is draining our valuable resources, polluting our environment, and clogging up landfills.
The biggest waste of our time is the waste of talent. So many smart people working as bankers, corporate lawyers, marketeers, etc. – while they could work on climate change, space travel, the cure for cancer, you name it. pic.twitter.com/eAap5e7dBb
— Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) March 24, 2019
Incentives are an important part of reducing waste because they help motivate people to change their behavior towards more sustainable practices. There can be different types of incentives: economic incentives, social incentives, or environmental incentives.
The Broken Legal System
An AI’s Letter to A Politician – “Forgive Me if I Remain Skeptical. After All, Your Lips Are Moving”
We’re Destroying the Planet
Politics: The Art of Making Things Worse
Rent Seeking
Anticompetitive Acquisitions
The Developed World is Aging
Desertification – Who Wants to Live in a Barren Wasteland?
So. Much. Waste.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Lack of awareness
Pollution Is Killing Everything
Deforestation
Lobbying – Just Super Lame
Government Spending is Out of Control
Irresponsible Corporations
The Financial System is Corrupt
The Influence of Money in Government
Rising Inequality – Enough is Enough
An Inept, Lazy and Compromised Media
Finding Ways to Reduce Our Waste
We sure do need to find ways to reduce our waste; after all, the planet’s not getting any bigger and it has been filled up with enough plastic bags and beer cans already. We all know how important it is to be responsible stewards of the environment – so reducing our waste output should be at the top of everyone’s priority list.
Of course, this is much more easily said than done: curbing the amount of garbage we produce requires us to make some changes in our everyday routine. Sure, these might be small steps that won’t have a huge impact immediately – but if we all did our part, the long-term effects on the environment would be enormous.
Goals to Reduce the Waste
A Better Future
A Competitive Marketplace
A Healthy Planet
A Productive Private Sector: Aligning the Free Market with the Common Good
Competent Leaders
Healthy People – Building a Stronger Nation
Strong Communities
The Circular Economy
World Peace – Is It Impossible?
We Need to Stop Wasting Time On Counterproductive Actions
It seems that no matter how hard we try, counterproductive actions are winning the battle for our time and attention. From unnecessary emails to random searches around the internet and beyond, counterproductive activities seem to be taking over our lives. It’s high time we take a stand against these wasteful habits and invest our precious resources into productive paths instead.
Let’s stop wasting away our hours on distractions and start allocating them to meaningful goals; it’s the only way we can truly reach success!
Ways to Reduce Waste
Aligning Incentives: Using the Free Market to Create a Better World
Artificial Intelligence – Is It the Answer?
Being Constructive: How to Move Forward
Close the Carried Interest Loophole
Demand Transparency: We Can’t Make Progress if We Don’t Know What’s Going On
Increase the Inheritance Tax
Legal Reform
Measuring Twice and Collapsing Superposition
Prioritize Human Flourishing
Reduce Health Care Cost
Reduce Traffic
Reducing the Federal Debt
Reform the Finance Industry
Reform the FIRE Sector
Reward “Good” Work
The Secondhand Economy
Value-Based Care Can Remake the Health Care System
More Recycling
Doing our part to save the planet can be such a chore, but thankfully these days there’s an easy way to do it. Yep, that’s right – recycle more!
Of course, this means that all those plastic containers with their pesky labels need to be rinsed and sorted and carted around town, but think of it this way – what higher calling could you possibly have?
Heroic contributions to futurism don’t come any bigger than collecting trash, after all.
Composting Food Scraps
Composting may not seem like the most glamorous way to save the environment, but it can make a huge difference in reducing food waste and ultimately our carbon footprint.
The idea is simple: instead of throwing all those vegetable peelings, eggshells, and fruit rinds away, recycle them back into the earth. Then, when it’s time to add soil to your garden or yard, you’ve got homemade compost that has enriched the land with much-needed organic material. As gross as it might initially sound, reusing your food scraps is one of the most natural and effective ways to help contribute to sustainability.
All This Waste is a Real Bummer
It’s pathetic how wasteful we are with our resources all across this country. We waste, waste, and waste some more, without any thought that it is counter-productive to our efforts and goals in the long run.
We waste time when we could use it to benefit ourselves and others, waste resources like water and electricity that are becoming increasingly scarce, and waste money on things we don’t need or that do us no good whatsoever — it’s utterly stupid.
We waste all kinds of energy arguing about distractions that ultimately have very little impact on our day-to-day lives.
We need to be aware of the consequences of our wastefulness and come up with rational ways to be responsible with our limited resources or else there will be dire results for generations ahead of us.
It’s time for us to face the facts: we are a society that loves to waste things.
It has to change.
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