Comsumption Vs. Population

[fredecus]

U.S. Comsuption
In May 2001, there weere about 284 million people in the United States. India's
population was about 1.03 billion. But Americans used 25 percent of the worlds
resources and produced 25 to 30 percent of the world's waste. Compared with 
the typical person in India the average U.S. citizen used:
50 times more steel
56 times more energy
170 times more rubber
250 times more motor fuel
300 times more plastic

This information was presented in my English book. My teacher went on to draw a conclusion that Americans are more wasteful.

I partially believe that but I also think that the U.S. is more industrialized than India causing more wastes to be produced.

If a nation is highly populated should it produce more waste?

 

[krackajack]

Ok well compare things to europe and america america .. plastic wraps everything.... france uses paper .. france you have to pay for plastic .. but no1 in france does.. they just buy 1 big plastic bag and they use that over and over..

In america at walmart they give out 1k's of plastic bags every day.....

 

[fredecus]

But does the usage of resources depend on the population?

 

[Arya]

But does the usage of resources depend on the population?

Of course it does, unless you idealize a declining population, based on those same resources.

OR

There's also a factor of communism you could apply to the equation, to fix the problem, in theory. Set a percentage of resources, over y, and spread it out among all of the inhabitants of that certain area. [In this case, U.S.]

In such case, there could be a lot of resources to go around, or a scarcity of resources, depending on the population. A generally bad, perhaps even malevolent idea, but it could also be the perfect solution if population were maintained.

 

[Angelmax]

What exactly is your point? Average income is higher in the West than elsewhere, meaning more is consumed and by extension more is wasted.

 

[Tombstone]

What exactly is your point? Average income is higher in the West than elsewhere, meaning more is consumed and by extension more is wasted.

What hes implying is that the citizens of the USA are more wasteful than a country with 1/6 of the world's population , use more resources than they produce and therefore technically as 1/20 of the world's population it is unfair to do so.