It used to be commonplace to hear the complaint on LBO that people in the US consumed too much, like Chris Kromm, here
>1) Every conscientious environmentalist I know argues that the chief
>culprit
>is the U.S. (sometimes this is extended to the major industrialized
>countries in general). So no, the progressive wing of the environmental
>movement does not "tell" the rest of the world that it must sacrifice
>living
>standards while they sit comfortably at home.
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2001/2001-April/006556.html
I had thought that Doug agreed with that, so I am surprised to hear him say that US living standards are falling. Indeed there was a time when Doug wrote about the "U.S. consumption boom" - albeit one that was 'debt-fuelled' http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/1998/1998-December/012481.html
But then Doug was still pointing to the historically high rates of consumption in 2005 - "Consumption has been over 70% of GDP for several years - well above the long-term average, which was pretty consistently around 66%."
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2005/2005-February/003216.html
And back in 2003, Doug posted this article, I think approvingly:
"Westerners Pretty Rich
You may think your salary is paltry, but compared with most of the world's population, you're up there with Bill Gates. ...For example, individuals in the United States who make less than $9,300 are officially poor, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's definition of poverty. But compared with the rest of the world, their income is in the top 12 percent.
An annual household income of $42,200 -- the U.S. median in 2001 -- is enough to land someone in the world's richest 1 percent, according to the site." http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2003/2003-September/021960.html
Yoshie drew attention to these statistics in 2002:
"Resource U.S. as a % of World Energy Consumption (1995) 24.8% Forestry Product Consumption (1996) 18.5% Materials Consumption (1995) 28.7% Water Consumption (1990) 13.7% Population (1999) 4.6% Top BTU Consumption by Country - 1995
Materials* Consumption, 1970-1995 (metric tons per capita)
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 U.S. 10.38 9.26 9.55 9.26 10.22 10.84 World**1.53 1.49 1.56 1.49 1.61 1.66 " http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2002/2002-May/013534.html
Ian Murray quoted this article by Martin Wolf:
"The high-income countries consumed just over half of the world's total output of commercial energy in 1998. The US alone consumed 23 per cent. The ratio of commercial energy consumption per head in high-income countries to that in the rest of the world was 5½ to one. The ratio of US consumption per head to that in developing countries was eight to one." http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2001/2001-November/024558.html
Chuck O proposed a more direct approach: "I say we burn down the fucking Wal-marts and replace them with something more ecologically sustainable and community-based." http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2006/2006-August/016411.html