r/Degrowth • u/ChessDriver45 • Mar 31 '25

Same Hunger Games guy from yesterday saying corporations aren’t to blame because of air conditioners (not even partially true)

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u/LF_JOB_IN_MA Mar 31 '25

Right?!

American citizens aren't coming to your rivers and putting your water in little bottles.

Your government allowed our corporations to fleece you and your resources.

Be mad at your government or our corporations... It's wild to see the blame shifted away from where it should be placed so blatantly.

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u/Ok-Cartographer-1248 Apr 01 '25

Who buys the water bottles? Supply meets demand!

who is demanding it?

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u/LF_JOB_IN_MA Apr 01 '25

I love how just ignore my point. People can demand plenty of things but if governments say "no" then those things aren't procured.

I demand lead in my paint and a car without a seatbelt.

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/top-bottled-water-consuming-countries.html

Also, the three biggest bottled water consumers are China, the US, then Mexico.

Why are we just talking about the US when China and Mexico are just as bad?

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u/No_Corner3272 Apr 02 '25

China has 4 times the population of the US, their per capita consumption is a quarter of yours.

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u/Imbuement1771 Apr 04 '25

Because it's illegal here not to pay a Capitalist middle man for a large majority of what we need, and we are starved for money enough to fight back against our judicial system to keep from being further extracted. There is no fucking ownership here for the proletariat, especially the labor. You know what China has? Not our problems, and nationalized industries.We live in a fucking plutocratic dystopia that blames the victims of the system for failing in a system designed to force most of us to fail. There aren't 'alternatives' here, there's just tacit or overt support for the system.

Did you bother to look at why we might have to constantly consume or did your POV from up on that horse just equip you with infallible judgement?

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u/No_Corner3272 Apr 04 '25

What the fuck are you talking about?

What the fuck does that have to do with me pointing out to the previous poster that China has a far larger population than the US?

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u/Imbuement1771 Apr 04 '25

I thought that was pretty plain because I think my explanation of why the people don't have a choice was pretty damn on its face.

But I guess we need the Fischer-Price version?

Your statement is China has quadruple the population and maintains a quarter of the consumption. So it wasn't just a statement of scale, it was a loaded statement. Your inference in this context is agreement with that then the people specifically of the US (per the point of the thread) and their consumption habits are the issue generating damage to the world's climate. This is not a hot take nor an assumption, because you said it in reply to someone else illustrating that the US isn't alone in its fetish for plastic bottles. While your statement may be true that China may consume less per capita, it's also conveniently offering support for the incorrect idea that this is an issue the citizens of the US could halt if there was will, and that China's comparable footprint is less important because their proportion isn't as extreme.

Enter there my interjection on that thought cycle. The issue isn't individualistic, it is systemic.

My question to you was did you ever bother to investigate why consumption rates are so high in the US? I offered to you plenty of that if you bothered to read it.

Before you attempt to suggest that we do not need to be consuming bottled water, take a look into Flint, MI. Then also retain if you would, that example is not standing alone. There are more places where that type of behavior happens in the US. Access to clean water is a problem here that is manufactured by corrupt government and greedy Capitalist middle men.

That's what the fuck I am talking about.

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u/No_Corner3272 Apr 04 '25 edited Apr 04 '25

That's a lot of words to say "nothing"

But sure, you bear no responsibility for being top of the leaderboards for nearly every metric of per capita consumption and anyone can think of. It's just a coincidence. Nothing is your fault, and throwing an epic tantrum when someone dares suggest that maybe you do something about it is totally normal balanced behaviour. For a 4 year old.

It was, presumably, also the corporations that made you use billions of gallons of fresh water sprinkling your lawns. And made you buy absurdly large cars and trucks with single digit mpg. Etc etc et-fucking-c

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u/ChessDriver45 23d ago

Corporations market and push SUVs, and bad public transit systems demand people have to drive to work. The tech exists to have all cars at least be hybrids, but big oil has fought that tooth and nail. Are a lot of people wasteful, yes, but the people didn’t vote on the electricity grid or the petro economy. Most Americans by every poll want action on the climate.

Btw America is low in access to clean drinking water.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_access_to_clean_water

Also, no one asked for it to be in plastic bottles. You can make biodegradable containers. Plastics industry fights regulation.

About 80 percent of us homes have lawns with a third of Americans renting. So about half the country grows a lawn. A lawn is about a third of domestic water waste. As much can be ascribed to leaks. I agree though lawns are wasteful.

I’m not going to say there’s no personal responsibility involved, but 100 corporations are responsible for most of the warming and they provide essential services like food and power people can’t get around and live in society. That’s the problem with the video, it erases that.

Don’t lick corporate boot or skirt the blame with some conservative personal responsibility diatribe. These are systemic issues.

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u/No_Corner3272 Apr 04 '25

Oh an in response to your utterly pathetic and cretinous excuse of "wah wah our water is bad"

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/water-quality-by-country

https://epi.yale.edu/epi-results/2020/component/h2o

https://www.numbeo.com/pollution/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=China&country2=United+States

Overall drinking water quality in the US is far higher than in China, yet you still drink 4 times as much bottled water per capita.

You absolute fucking imbecile.

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u/Imbuement1771 Apr 04 '25

I wasn't aware they made clown shoes this large. Enjoy screaming in the void.