Peruasive

Laziness in America

America today is a very lazy place; people have become too accustomed to their ways and will not even consider what it is doing to them. Everyone constantly praises our wonderful technology; what they don' realize is what our technology is doing to us. As we depend more and more on gadgets to do things for us we lose ourselves to apathy and our personal interests completely forgetting the common good. When it becomes so easy to satisfy our wants we totally forget about those that actually need help. We drive a car two miles instead of taking a walk on a beautiful spring day, we do take-out and fast food instead of cooking a nutritious meal to save "valuable" seconds, and we can't figure out why the rate obesity is climbing. This American laziness brought about by dependence on technology and a decline in ethics and religion are large contributing factors to the decline of our society.

This laziness is apparent at all levels of society but it starts at the personal and individual level. Society tells us that we should do things as quickly and efficiently as we can; and people are always developing new ways to make things easier and more efficient for us all. Therefore as an individual grows he or she is always taught to do things as quickly and easily as possible. This unfortunately means that much work is cut out of the process. Having no hard work due to daily conveniences sets a dangerous precedent.

Things like this are the root cause of obesity in the U.S., not just the mindset but the way we live our daily lives. Citizens psyches are under the impression that their obesity comes only from certain meals (Christmas, thanksgiving, etc) not all the time. Approximately 127 million adults in the U.S. are overweight, 60 million obese, and 9 million severely obese (hhtp://www.obesity.org). Body Mass Index (BMI) is a measurement tool used to determine excess body weight. Overweight is defined as a BMI of 25 or more, obesity is 30 or more, and severe obesity is 40 or more. Overall the problem stems from the general citizens lack of work ethic; in recent years that ethic has declined severely. It is the inability or flat out unwillingness to work and/or struggle to get what you want. The table below highlights the increasing obesity problem.

Increase in Prevalence (%) of Overweight (BMI > 25),

Obesity (BMI > 30) and Severe Obesity (BMI > 40) Among U.S. Adults.

Years Overweight

(BMI > 25) Obesity

(BMI > 30) Severe Obesity

(BMI > 40)

1999 to 2000 64.5 30.5 4.7

1998 to 1994 56.0 23.0 2.9

1976 to