Do Americans really care?
After coming from Japan (last month)and the differences I saw, it just made me more in awe of how they are as a country.
The highways and streets are clean and unlittered. Why? Because Japanese people just don't litter. In the public (and I'm sure private) schools, the kids clean, sweep, etc. the classrooms and in some cases the bathrooms as well instead of a janitor.
You go on public transportation and no one is talking on phones, talking out loud, playing loud music, and when an elderly person gets on a full train or bus, someone will give up their seat to them. Kids there are respectful and attentive to older people addressing them whether it be a teacher or just someone telling them something. And the homeless is like 5,000 people for the whole country because there are great support systems to help get them off the streets. I personally didn't see any while in Tokyo or Yokohama. These aren't rules. It's just what they do culturally.
In contrast to here where there's litter all over our highways and busy streets. You see people throw stuff out of their car driving or leave it in parking lots. Many drive like idiots out on the freeways and many that cause accidents drive away from them. I work in a middleschool during the school year as a lunch monitor and the level of respect from kids today is pretty much non existent. And of course our homeless situation isn't getting smaller.
Which also leads up to health and fitness (since this is a health and fitness site). 70% of US is now overweight or obese and do we really care? Yes you hear of people WANTING to be a normal weight, but not caring enough to do what it takes do get there. And it's still slowly rising. Now many blame the food companies. You know how you stop them from doing it? Don't buy their stuff or buy their better stuff instead. But many don't care as long as they're getting what they want.
Part of why I got into the fitness industry was to assist people who have weight issues, health issues, etc. It's so great to be able to directly help someone improve their life. Unfortunately for every one person I see and help, there are 20 out there that don't do anything to address their issue till it may be too late.
Do they care about health an fitness in Japan? Well I would say the majority of people there have some sort of physical fitness (mostly walking) they are doing. They don't seem to eat in excessive amounts (I saw maybe 2 people there who were just in the overweight category by looking at them). And their food choices seem "fresher" (I loved their bread there) and less calorie dense.
I fear that it's only going to get worse for us as well because with technology getting better, there's going to be jobs that will be replaced AI. Meaning many people will be having jobs that will likely pay them less just so they have one and with less money, many will buy cheaper foods just so they can eat. So what do we do as citizens to try to reduce this from happening?
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
The highways and streets are clean and unlittered. Why? Because Japanese people just don't litter. In the public (and I'm sure private) schools, the kids clean, sweep, etc. the classrooms and in some cases the bathrooms as well instead of a janitor.
You go on public transportation and no one is talking on phones, talking out loud, playing loud music, and when an elderly person gets on a full train or bus, someone will give up their seat to them. Kids there are respectful and attentive to older people addressing them whether it be a teacher or just someone telling them something. And the homeless is like 5,000 people for the whole country because there are great support systems to help get them off the streets. I personally didn't see any while in Tokyo or Yokohama. These aren't rules. It's just what they do culturally.
In contrast to here where there's litter all over our highways and busy streets. You see people throw stuff out of their car driving or leave it in parking lots. Many drive like idiots out on the freeways and many that cause accidents drive away from them. I work in a middleschool during the school year as a lunch monitor and the level of respect from kids today is pretty much non existent. And of course our homeless situation isn't getting smaller.
Which also leads up to health and fitness (since this is a health and fitness site). 70% of US is now overweight or obese and do we really care? Yes you hear of people WANTING to be a normal weight, but not caring enough to do what it takes do get there. And it's still slowly rising. Now many blame the food companies. You know how you stop them from doing it? Don't buy their stuff or buy their better stuff instead. But many don't care as long as they're getting what they want.
Part of why I got into the fitness industry was to assist people who have weight issues, health issues, etc. It's so great to be able to directly help someone improve their life. Unfortunately for every one person I see and help, there are 20 out there that don't do anything to address their issue till it may be too late.
Do they care about health an fitness in Japan? Well I would say the majority of people there have some sort of physical fitness (mostly walking) they are doing. They don't seem to eat in excessive amounts (I saw maybe 2 people there who were just in the overweight category by looking at them). And their food choices seem "fresher" (I loved their bread there) and less calorie dense.
I fear that it's only going to get worse for us as well because with technology getting better, there's going to be jobs that will be replaced AI. Meaning many people will be having jobs that will likely pay them less just so they have one and with less money, many will buy cheaper foods just so they can eat. So what do we do as citizens to try to reduce this from happening?
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
1
Replies
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I think it's a cultural thing to some extent. Because we in the US tend to be much more into individualism, people can be less focused on societal issues as a whole.... or they think making a ticktock video is enough. I also think this feeds into the "love yourself as you are! You don't need to make changes!" mentality. At the end of the day, though, I think people do care, they're just a bit... thoughtless maybe.0
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You can tell by how few shopping carts get returned to the proper place that there’s always some bad apples that don’t give AF. Especially at Walmart….0
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Yep. My take on people like that is they will never achieve the goals they are really trying for because they are willing to take shortcuts on the littlest things to do.You can tell by how few shopping carts get returned to the proper place that there’s always some bad apples that don’t give AF. Especially at Walmart….
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Lol, not only do I return my cart, I'll arrange them if they look really bad to make it easier for the person that retrieves them to bring back to the store. My OCD keeps me doing things like that. My gym stays super organized while I'm shift.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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@ninerbuff It's not bragging if it's true, the Japanese are some cool cats.
I care. I'm just not sure about living in a perfect, electrical utopian world. We've had 14 electrical outages in one week's time. There's too many people moving in. Our substations can't handle it, and they're falling apart. I have no idea how they plan to operate heavy equipment and snowplows with electricity. Try that at 11,000 feet elevation with no charging stations, plowing 126 inches of winter snowfall.
I'm not about to eat plastic meat, plastic fish, or that lab generated multi-crap. I'll take AI over natural idiocy.
How are we going to generate and heat/cool everyone off with electricity. Many may not have enough water to drink. I care, but many of my folkaronies all feel the same way. We feel like we've been gut-punched, and we're waiting for the other shoe to drop. We can't shake it. Your mileage may vary. 1 -
Hiawassee88 wrote: »@ninerbuff It's not bragging if it's true, the Japanese are some cool cats.
I care. I'm just not sure about living in a perfect, electrical utopian world. We've had 14 electrical outages in one week's time. There's too many people moving in. Our substations can't handle it, and they're falling apart. I have no idea how they plan to operate heavy equipment and snowplows with electricity. Try that at 11,000 feet elevation with no charging stations, plowing 126 inches of winter snowfall.
I'm not about to eat plastic meat, plastic fish, or that lab generated multi-crap. I'll take AI over natural idiocy. How are we going to generate and heat/cool everyone off with electricity. Many may not have enough water to drink. I care, but many of my folkaronies all feel the same way. We feel like we've been gut-punched, and we're waiting for the other shoe to drop. We can't shake it. Your mileage may vary.
You made some good points.0
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