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The United States of Excess: Gluttony and the Dark Side of American Exceptionalism
Compared to other wealthy countries, America stands out as a gluttonous over-consumer of both food and fuel. The United States boasts an obesity prevalence double the industrial world average, and per capita carbon emissions twice the average for Europe. Still worse, the policy steps taken by America in response to obesity and climate change have so far been the weakest in the industrial world. These aspects of America's exceptionalism are nothing to be proud of.
Is it possible that America is hard-wired to consume too much food and fuel? Unfortunately, yes, says Robert Paarlberg in The United States of Excess. America's excess is driven in each case by its distinct endowment of material and demographic resources, its unusually weak national political institutions, and a unique political culture that celebrates both individual freedoms over social responsibility, and free markets over governmental authority. America's over-consumption is shown to be over-determined.
Because of these powerful underlying circumstances, America's strongest policy response, both to climate change and obesity, will be adaptation rather than mitigation. As the damaging consequences of climate change become manifest, America will not impose adequate measures to reduce fossil fuel consumption, attempting instead to protect itself from storms and sea-level rise through costly infrastructure upgrades. In response to the damaging health consequences of obesity, America will opt for medical interventions and physical accommodations, rather than the policy measures that would be needed to induce better diets or more exercise.
These adaptation responses will generate serious equity problems, both at home and abroad. Responding to obesity with medical interventions will fall short for those in America most prone to obesity - racial minorities and the poor - since these groups have never enjoyed adequate access to quality health care. Responding to climate change by building more resilient infrastructures at home, while allowing atmospheric concentrations of CO2 to continue their increase, will impose greater climate disruption on poor tropical countries, which are far less capable of self-protection. Awareness of these inequities must be the starting point toward altering America's current path.
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Is it possible that America is hard-wired to consume too much food and fuel? Unfortunately, yes, says Robert Paarlberg in The United States of Excess. America's excess is driven in each case by its distinct endowment of material and demographic resources, its unusually weak national political institutions, and a unique political culture that celebrates both individual freedoms over social responsibility, and free markets over governmental authority. America's over-consumption is shown to be over-determined.
Because of these powerful underlying circumstances, America's strongest policy response, both to climate change and obesity, will be adaptation rather than mitigation. As the damaging consequences of climate change become manifest, America will not impose adequate measures to reduce fossil fuel consumption, attempting instead to protect itself from storms and sea-level rise through costly infrastructure upgrades. In response to the damaging health consequences of obesity, America will opt for medical interventions and physical accommodations, rather than the policy measures that would be needed to induce better diets or more exercise.
These adaptation responses will generate serious equity problems, both at home and abroad. Responding to obesity with medical interventions will fall short for those in America most prone to obesity - racial minorities and the poor - since these groups have never enjoyed adequate access to quality health care. Responding to climate change by building more resilient infrastructures at home, while allowing atmospheric concentrations of CO2 to continue their increase, will impose greater climate disruption on poor tropical countries, which are far less capable of self-protection. Awareness of these inequities must be the starting point toward altering America's current path.
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- GenresNonfictionPolitics
235 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 6, 2015
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127 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 8, 2020
"...we are all equal in the eyes of God. But as Americans, that is not enough, we must be equal in the eyes of each other" ~ Ronald Reagan
The United States of Excess: Gluttony and the Dark Side of American Exceptionalism by Robert Paarlberg is a look at America's love of conspicuous consumption. Paarlberg is a professor at Wellesley College and Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. He has written several books on food policy and politics including the very comprehensive Food Politics.
Back in the 1970s I remember a television called Good Times, the main character JJ would talk about the good life that was coming his way when he'd "Sit back in my Cadillac and have a Big Mac." The American dream, even for the poor in the television show, seemed so desirable back then. Looking at that line today, forty years later, it reflects on what is wrong with this country. We have become wasteful and energy hungry society coupled with an ever growing obesity problem and a dietary nightmare. It's like we took a simple line and carried it to the extreme.
We have changed as a country. Office chairs used to be rated at 300lbs, now they are rated at 600lbs. The new Yankee stadium was built with wider seats. Airlines like SouthWest will charge you for a second seat if you cannot fit into a single seat. Almost a quarter of our calories come from eating outside the house from 5% in 1960. The rear view camera and dashboard display in modern cars may be convenient, but for many too big to turn around in their car seat it is the only to look back. In 1969, 40% of children walked or rode a bike to school. By 2001, that percentage dropped to 13%. Less than half the adult population gets three hours of exercise a week.
We like to drive and not just any cars. We like big cars. We like big houses all of which take more energy to heat and cool. America uses one-quarter of the oil used every day in the world. Advanced countries in Europe and Japan use far less energy and maintain a comparable standard of living, if not better. We trust our corporate lead economy. We allow our government to fall into the hands of lobbyists. Our school lunch program is declining in quality and reason. In the 1980s, we laughed when Congress considered ketchup a vegetable, but today pizza is considered a vegetable because it contains tomato paste (Schwan and Conagra lobby). French fries also count as a vegetable (potato lobby).
Paarlberg covers many areas including the public and governmental belief/disbelief in global warming, alternative fuels, and why Americans use so much fuel in their daily lives. It is not a book that points fingers as much as it is used to explain why we are the way we are, how we got there, and why we stay. Our diets and lifestyles have evolved, and Paarlberg explains the history and guides the reader down the complex path. A very fact filled and interesting read.
The United States of Excess: Gluttony and the Dark Side of American Exceptionalism by Robert Paarlberg is a look at America's love of conspicuous consumption. Paarlberg is a professor at Wellesley College and Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. He has written several books on food policy and politics including the very comprehensive Food Politics.
Back in the 1970s I remember a television called Good Times, the main character JJ would talk about the good life that was coming his way when he'd "Sit back in my Cadillac and have a Big Mac." The American dream, even for the poor in the television show, seemed so desirable back then. Looking at that line today, forty years later, it reflects on what is wrong with this country. We have become wasteful and energy hungry society coupled with an ever growing obesity problem and a dietary nightmare. It's like we took a simple line and carried it to the extreme.
We have changed as a country. Office chairs used to be rated at 300lbs, now they are rated at 600lbs. The new Yankee stadium was built with wider seats. Airlines like SouthWest will charge you for a second seat if you cannot fit into a single seat. Almost a quarter of our calories come from eating outside the house from 5% in 1960. The rear view camera and dashboard display in modern cars may be convenient, but for many too big to turn around in their car seat it is the only to look back. In 1969, 40% of children walked or rode a bike to school. By 2001, that percentage dropped to 13%. Less than half the adult population gets three hours of exercise a week.
We like to drive and not just any cars. We like big cars. We like big houses all of which take more energy to heat and cool. America uses one-quarter of the oil used every day in the world. Advanced countries in Europe and Japan use far less energy and maintain a comparable standard of living, if not better. We trust our corporate lead economy. We allow our government to fall into the hands of lobbyists. Our school lunch program is declining in quality and reason. In the 1980s, we laughed when Congress considered ketchup a vegetable, but today pizza is considered a vegetable because it contains tomato paste (Schwan and Conagra lobby). French fries also count as a vegetable (potato lobby).
Paarlberg covers many areas including the public and governmental belief/disbelief in global warming, alternative fuels, and why Americans use so much fuel in their daily lives. It is not a book that points fingers as much as it is used to explain why we are the way we are, how we got there, and why we stay. Our diets and lifestyles have evolved, and Paarlberg explains the history and guides the reader down the complex path. A very fact filled and interesting read.
March 3, 2024
A student in my Food Law & Policy class chose to read this book for a paper that he will be writing. And thus I read it too. It's a quick read and written well for educated lay audiences -- absorbing, but also constructed properly for easy reading. That is, one can read the first and last chapter and understand the overall thesis and the three parts to his argument. That could be enough. Or one could also read the first and last paragraph of each chapter and thereby understand the reasoning behind each of the three parts. One could go a further level down, reading the first sentence of each paragraph, and now one would be told what the different bits of evidence. Or one could read the paragraphs themselves, and plow through the data. Paarlberg is a political science professor at Wellesley. He writes for a living, he knows how to construct an argument, and he knows how to write for a range of audiences at the same time. It's painstakingly clear and, thankfully, easy to skim.
And the thesis? Excess food and fuel consumption in the Unites States make our country an outlier and can be attributed to (1) this country's unique material and demographic endowment, for instance its abundance of resources and comparatively sparse population, (2) its unique political system, for instance with "veto points" that block strong government action that might correct overconsumption, and (3) its unique culture, for instance, its mistrust of government authority and emphasis on individual responsibility. After explaining this (each in its own chapter), he argues that our country is also an outlier in its response to excess food and fuel consumption -- because we "adapt" rather than "mitigate." In the context of food -- which admittedly is all I read, his having made it very easy to skip the paragraphs and chapter sections relating to fuel, which was not relevant to my exercise -- the choice to adapt rather than mitigate means that we aren't trying to fix the overconsumption. Rather, we are making theater seats and office chairs larger (600 pound tolerance!!!), we are destigmatizing obesity, and we develop pharmaceuticals to mitigate some of its metabolic consequences. The argument is straight forward, and it seems well supported, though (1) the endnotes seem a bit heavy on mass media news stories (surprisingly so, given the constant recitation of hard data), and (2) at times I found myself suspicious that he has built a great deal of his argument from the whiff/impression one gets from study after study that is just correlation.
Worth reading, because it's interesting. But it's not science. It's an essay -- a long essay -- that is really more theoretical than empirical. Don't mistake it for empirical proof, just because he has stuffed it to the gills with numbers and percentages.
And the thesis? Excess food and fuel consumption in the Unites States make our country an outlier and can be attributed to (1) this country's unique material and demographic endowment, for instance its abundance of resources and comparatively sparse population, (2) its unique political system, for instance with "veto points" that block strong government action that might correct overconsumption, and (3) its unique culture, for instance, its mistrust of government authority and emphasis on individual responsibility. After explaining this (each in its own chapter), he argues that our country is also an outlier in its response to excess food and fuel consumption -- because we "adapt" rather than "mitigate." In the context of food -- which admittedly is all I read, his having made it very easy to skip the paragraphs and chapter sections relating to fuel, which was not relevant to my exercise -- the choice to adapt rather than mitigate means that we aren't trying to fix the overconsumption. Rather, we are making theater seats and office chairs larger (600 pound tolerance!!!), we are destigmatizing obesity, and we develop pharmaceuticals to mitigate some of its metabolic consequences. The argument is straight forward, and it seems well supported, though (1) the endnotes seem a bit heavy on mass media news stories (surprisingly so, given the constant recitation of hard data), and (2) at times I found myself suspicious that he has built a great deal of his argument from the whiff/impression one gets from study after study that is just correlation.
Worth reading, because it's interesting. But it's not science. It's an essay -- a long essay -- that is really more theoretical than empirical. Don't mistake it for empirical proof, just because he has stuffed it to the gills with numbers and percentages.
May 18, 2020
If you want a book written for the lay reader, but backed by statistics and research, that explains why the US leads the world in terms of consumption of fossil fuels as well as obesity, this is an excellent choice. Easy to read, clear, concise, and effective.
March 23, 2017
The United States of America-- We do whatever we want and we don't care what you think about it!
April 10, 2016
Wow, this book dives into two topics I would have never linked together. Food and Fuel, their over-consumption by American's, and the resulting negative effects. Where this book is truly interesting is presenting analysis of how we got to where we are, how exceptionalism has lead to over-consumption, and why it is so hard to make change in these areas.
As an example, American's value individual freedom over social democracy. We value personal responsibility and tend to mistrust of government. Being different from the European perspective, how did we develop this viewpoint? How did this help promote the fossil fuel economy and the obesity epidemic? Why is it hard for America to solve these over-consumption issues? History, politics, natural resources, economics, culture, religion, all these are explored.
This books is not just an opinion rant, it is very analytical with backup data and references (there are 30 pages just for the reference). Of course, many people may not agree with underlying theme of the book. If you are a climate denier, think fat people are just lazy, or feel American Exceptionalism is only good, don't read this book.
If you are concerned or curious about fossil fuels and food/health policy, this provide a valuable understanding about how America is so unique in these areas.
As an example, American's value individual freedom over social democracy. We value personal responsibility and tend to mistrust of government. Being different from the European perspective, how did we develop this viewpoint? How did this help promote the fossil fuel economy and the obesity epidemic? Why is it hard for America to solve these over-consumption issues? History, politics, natural resources, economics, culture, religion, all these are explored.
This books is not just an opinion rant, it is very analytical with backup data and references (there are 30 pages just for the reference). Of course, many people may not agree with underlying theme of the book. If you are a climate denier, think fat people are just lazy, or feel American Exceptionalism is only good, don't read this book.
If you are concerned or curious about fossil fuels and food/health policy, this provide a valuable understanding about how America is so unique in these areas.
February 25, 2015
While this book was written in an informative way, I'm not satisfied with the information it possessed. It gives lots of important and interesting (for me) information about the USA itself, I enjoyed reading it (hence the rating), yet it is not very spot on.
Apart from that, it is well-written and interesting. Doesn't abandon the important parts altogether for the sake of keeping it short. Overall, 4/5.
Apart from that, it is well-written and interesting. Doesn't abandon the important parts altogether for the sake of keeping it short. Overall, 4/5.
July 26, 2016
I'll be honest: I didn't read the whole thing, but Paarlberg's opening argument served its purpose: to convince me of calories and precious resources that America wastes, at prodigious rates, everyday. It is a dangerous course for humanity and I hope that we will right our course somehow, though Paarlberg is not optimistic that we will: "Conclusions such as these, which point to flaws in national character, are painful to reach but impossible to avoid."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 22, 2015
Let me save you some time. Here's the book in a nutshell: Gluttony is an all-American quality. We overeat. We are obese and unhealthy. We consume too much energy. We are a greedy and hedonistic society. End of story. Why it takes thousands of words to say the same thing - over and over - is beyond me.
June 7, 2015
Review to come.
December 13, 2015
Reasonably interesting look at why the US has such trouble dealing with climate change and obesity
August 22, 2016
Great collection of recent statistics especially regarding energy and nutrition with comparative global norms
March 11, 2017
read for OSHER class
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews