When possible, I like to catch episodes of Dirty Jobs on The Discovery Channel. For those of you who haven't seen it, the basic premise is that Mike Rowe goes around the country meeting people with dirty jobs and then doing the job along side them for a while. It's fascinating, and you definitely meet a lot of frugal people. It's amazing how one man's trash is another man's treasure.
Mike Rowe has a blog, and I found this recent entry very interesting. Titled "
Don't Forget To Turn Off The Lights & Shut The Door On Your Way Out," Mike responds to a question asking him what he thinks of the green movement. It's a very well thought out answer and it really resonates with me.
He discusses how going "green" has become a fashionable movement, and discusses how he was raised in a family where wastefulness wasn't tolerated. I especially liked this paragraph:
"My Dad wasn't green. He just enjoyed getting by with less. And that attitude mentality translated into an overall sensibility of conservation. Today, I am conservative in most things. I believe it's better to make more than you spend, and save more than you think you'll need. I don't care for conspicuous consumption, and believe the biggest problem facing this country is our endless sense of expectation and entitlement and personal debt."
I hadn't really thought of the link between personal debt (financial wastefulness in many cases) and pollution, but I think Mike Rowe hits the nail on the head. We are, unfortunately, a country of conspicuous consumption. And while turning off the lights and using less energy is good for the environment and also good for our pocketbooks, will we really be able to keep it up? Sure, some of us will. But eventually, something new will overtake the green movement, and the majority of people will forget. Or perhaps the green movement will continue, but not in the way of recycling and turning off the air conditioner, but in buying new "green" household items to show our friends just how environmentally friendly we truly are.
I really recommend you read this entire blog post. It really resonated with me.
2 comments:
First off - love your blog. It is really inspiring me as I start on this path of making more responsible finanial decisions.
Second - Thanks for the link. I actually blogged about this whole idea yesterday, but didn't put it nearly as well as Mike. (And everything's better when you can imagine his voice reading it.)
Hi Megan, that's not only a great post of Mike's you shared with us - but a great post you made as well! It's a very interesting topic which is finally getting addressed.
I wanted to inform you of an upcoming Dirty Jobs special which is airing as part of this year's Shark Week. It airs on Tuesday, July 29th, at 9PM. It's going to be about Mike's quest for the Greenland Shark while also touching on how sharks are important to our environment. If you'd like more info I'd be happy to share; I work with Discovery and have the inside scoop.
I hope you don't mind me contacting you like this; I think you'd be happy to hear about this special. Feel free to contact me back, and have a great day.
Shawn Grover
shawngrover2008@gmail.com
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