Since Free Traders believe that America should lower its standard of living to help the third world

[Catherina]

34. I'm a lot harsher than you are

I think, generally speaking, Liberals aren't more than a notch above conservatives because the problem is the whole American lifestyle.

Please bear in mind you're talking with someone (me) who got so sick of consumerism and waste in the US, that I moved somewhere where people walk, weave their own cloth, wash their clothes by hand etc, and don't put such a strain on resources.

I think we consume the most because we don't give a thought to how extravagant our lifestyles really are.

Warning. Semi-Luddite rant ahead. The use of *you* is general.

WHY do you need even an electric or biodiesel car? To get to work so you can earn enough money to make car, gas, maintenance and insurance payments? To drive to a big store miles away because they killed all the mom & pop stores so the corporations could squeeze you dry for fat profits? To go to work so you can afford to buy clothes to wear to work? To go go work to earn money to pay for appliances because you don't have time to wash/clean by hand or really cook anymore?

I agree that "Liberals have pushed for conservation, recycling, alternative energy: reduce, reuse, recycle" but it's one of those tip-of=the-iceberg things that borders on cosmetics. It's a good start and a lot of important education went into it but we're in a hole so deep I don't even know where to start anymore. All the things you wrote about are good and I hope we keep pushing things but I despair that we're not looking at this deeply enough.

I'm not talking about you or I wouldn't have rec'd your thread. Those are just general thoughts of a subject near and dear to my heart.

I wish more people could see first-hand the work that goes on down here and how people are exploited to get their resources to the US market, where people don't even think about the tears that went into producing them and getting them there. Thanks for the work you're doing getting people to think about these things.