The Price of Modern Society

            Lisa wakes up at 6:15, takes shower, grabs a quick bite to eat, and get a coffee at Starbucks before heading off to work in the morning. She then works hard all day, struggling under the pressure to make sales because she knows she has bills she is struggling to pay. She’s been warned by the electric company that she has a week to pay her bill before her power gets shut off, and she’s already lost water twice. Why then, does she continue to buy her morning coffee at Starbucks? Does she really need to pay four dollars every morning for a simple cup of coffee?

            According to an article written by USA Today, Starbucks has “changed what we’ll pay for coffee” drastically since it went public in 1992. People are now willing to pay four dollars for a cup of coffee that they could have easily prepared for themselves at home for a fraction of the price. Why then, do we find it acceptable to go to Starbucks every day and buy overpriced coffee? According to USA Today, “We live in a society where people think $5 is $1 because of Starbucks,” and therefore, we include it in our daily routines, not even realizing the hole it burns in our savings over time.

            I decided to do a little research and see how much people could potentially be spending on just Starbucks every year. One of the most popular items on the menu is the Caramel Macchiato, which costs $2.80 for a tall. Over a week, that’s $19.60, a month, $84, and over the course of an entire year that’s a whopping $1022! I also decided to look up the average electric bills and average water bills. Per month an electric bill was about $95.66, and a water bill was $51. Now if Lisa hadn’t gotten that Caramel Macchiato every day, she could have paid for almost eleven months of electricity with her Starbucks money, or twenty months of water. In a nutshell, Lisa would have been a lot better off financially if she hadn’t gotten that morning coffee.

            So the question remains, why do we do this? Why do we continually pay so much for coffee? We could easily make our coffee at home, which would probably not only save us money, but also time in the morning. The answer is simple. According to another blog about Starbucks, it has “already touched culture and left a lasting mark.” Starbucks has found its way into every nook and cranny of our society. It has even found its way into schools, one of them being my very own, New Trier. Because it has made such an imprint on our society, we are quick to go throw our money away at there without even batting an eye at it.

So now I ask one final time, why? What has made Starbucks this huge phenomenon? Why is it that we allowed Starbucks to impact our culture so much?

Truth Hurts

            A huge knot formed in the bottom of my throat. I tried to convince myself this couldn’t be true. I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted to scream. I wanted to run away. I just wanted things to change. I couldn’t believe that they would do such a thing. They were too good. They were some of the last people I would expect to do this. As I sat there in awe, I listened as my friend told me about that fateful night when three of our closest friends succumbed to marijuana.

            As I listened, I wondered why they did it, why they would want to, or even consider it. This was one of the hardest things I ever had to hear. I was filled with so many emotions. I spent all day consumed by thoughts about them and why they would be so selfish. Why did they do it? And more importantly, why didn’t they tell me? I was supposed to be one of their closest friends.

            I started to worry what could happen to them. According to an article I read, the effects can start after a short period and can have effects like problems with memory and learning, distorted perception, trouble with thinking and problem solving, loss of concentration, increased heart rate, anxiety, and panic attacks. Then I started looking into the long-term effects. Those included cancer, breathing issues, damage to the immune system, and damage to the reproductive system. I was shocked after learning all this that my friends could potentially do this to themselves. I wanted to stop them, but knew they wouldn’t listen. I talked to one of my friends today about it and I felt like I was talking to a wall. She doesn’t think she’s harming herself in any way. I’m heartbroken to know that she is willing to throw away her health for something stupid like that.

            How many people actually harm themselves like that? How many people make an impact on their friends all over the country? I looked into this as well. I got a lot of results, but the average amount was around 10-12 percent of adolescents smoking marijuana. How many people after that does it affect? People don’t realize how painful it is to watch unless they’ve done it. I never thought I’d have this problem. I never thought I’d have to watch my own friends throw their lives away like this. But now it’s too late. An inanimate object the size of their finger is now the center of their attention. I wonder who else sits powerless, unable to change their loved one’s minds, as they are at the mercy of a stupid joint of weed. I now ask, who else? Who else has been affected by this?

A Jobless Nation?

Tonight, as I was reading Where I Lived, and What I Lived For, I noticed a connection between the ideas the author presented about the way people in America live their lives, and the impact our values have on the "job crisis." Many Americans right now are concerned about the lack of availability of jobs right now. In an article I read, there was a lot of concern about technology taking away jobs. However, the author seemed to be against the idea of having a job. He "understands that we all want paychecks-- or at least money. We want food, shelter, clothing, and all the things that money buys us. But do we all really want jobs?" (CNN article) I agree with the author of this article in the sense that our society has recently turned its focus from productivity to employment. We have begun to look at our long term goals too much (which is important also) instead of trying to get the most out of every day.

According to Walden, the author of Where I Lived, and What I Lived For, "The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life." Americans are waking up every day with only the goal of succeeding eventually, instead of appreciating life every day for what it's worth. Where is enjoyment of the little things in life? What happened to the simplicity of life? Is our society productive, or has it just allowed us to become engulfed in all of its complexities?

Both of these authors parallel the same idea that our society has become incredibly productive on its own. As stated in the CNN article, our society "is productive enough that it could probably shelter, feed, educate, and even provide health care for its entire population with just a fraction of us actually working." So then why can't our society stop dwelling on the material things we would like to eventually have? Do we really need to stay up until 2 in the morning just so we can keep our job that will eventually make us feel at "peace?" Enjoyment of every day of life is a lot more valuable than having a "career" for a living and worrying every day about achieving this lifelong goal that most of us will not achieve. Life is not meant to be wasted on worrying about getting enjoyment out of our life eventually. As Walden said, "Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour. If we refused, or rather used up, such paltry information as we get, the oracles would distinctly inform us how this might be done."