Placing My Money Back on the Table

After taking a long break from writing I am placing my money back on the table. I hope that it's irrelevant I'm jumping back in at this moment because I'm procrastinating on doing homework. I will contend that some of my best writing comes not under the gun, but rather when avoiding it completely.

I have recently enjoyed the luxury of having a month to myself and my thoughts. A significant amount of that time has led to the deep thoughts of life, none more so than contemplating the eternal debate of enjoying life versus maximizing the savings account. (Of course the savings account would be maximized even more if our house sold...) After spending the entire weekend lounging around the house knocking out homework between procrastination sessions I started feeling the urge to take a random trip. As much as Americans complain about life, the fact that a random trip is possible should remind us how lucky we are.

Of course it is much easier to complain about life, so I dug out Gregg Easterbrook's excellent book "The Progress Paradox." When skimming the first chapter, I noticed an intriguing statistic about Americans eating out. (Alright, I admit taking trips was my bait. Here is the switch:) "In 2000, $376 billion was spent in American restaurants: about 4 percent of the nation's GDP, and a figure considerably higher than the defense budget that year."

This statistic made me instantly think of a Sergeant's excellent closing comments in the documentary "The War Tapes." He made the [correct] observation that after finishing watching the documentary Americans would forget all about the situation unless they had a relative fighting over there. Instead, they would be much angrier over their pizza being delivered more than 30 minutes after the order was placed.

Well, even with the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, America's defense budget remains 3.5% of our GDP. Could it be argued that the fast food industry (to include sit-down restaurants) is just as important to the national GDP as the military? I know this is comparing apples and oranges, and even if I wasn't in the military I hope that I would still get pissed off at the people who are so self-absorbed that they can't spare five extra minutes for their food. Perhaps the question is just another instance of so much data with no one to interpret.

I'm keeping this one relatively light, but hopefully you found that point worth pondering. If you think I just wasted your time (or you're waiting for the pizza delivery guy), consider Easterbrook's subsequent point: "Americans spend 46% of their food money in restaurants, and the figure continues to rise." While this current recession has likely put a crimp into that stat, that is more than double the spending rate from the 1950s. The average American is having our food prepared for us at more than twice the rate of the previous generation, yet we still complain. (There, I completed the circle. It's good to be back!)



Current Thought: Friday ESPN broke the news about Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz juicing before MLB started cracking down. No Sports Guy post before the weekend. Is he hoping this will fade out or is he going to get holier-than-thou like he did with the Patriots videotape scandal.

Current Lyric: "Like a cause without rebels." Rise Against, Re-Education (Through Labor)