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| Yes | 71% | 655 votes | Total: 921 votes | |
| No | 29% | 266 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesAmericans as a whole are lazy people. Just by looking at the people we pass in the street, in we can plainly see that. We are one of the fattest countries in the world. This is not a title we should be proud of.
One reason is because we drive EVERYWHERE! The place we need to go could only be a few blocks away, yet we have to drive there. Maybe it is because we lack adequate public transportation in all cities and towns. Sure, go to any major metropolitan city, such as New York or Boston, and you will find trains, buses, subways, and taxis. You will also find people that are not as fat as those in not so metropolitan cities. Being in a city like New York it is more convenient to walk to the place you have to be at. Driving is just too much of a headache. But in towns with a population of less than two million and you find public transportation seriously lacking. Look at some capital cities like Topeka and you won't find as convenient public transportation. Go into even smaller towns and you will not find any. Perhaps if cities spend a little more money on public transportation then we as a nation would be more willing to leave our gas guzzling cars in the driveway and walk to the nearest bus stop. I am thinking of the money that we can stop feeding into the big oil companies pockets if we just took the bus.
Another reason that we have become a lazy nation is the Internet. Now we do not even need to leave the comfort of our own homes to get everyday necessities. With everything from movies to groceries on-line, we can just sit in front of the computer and do our own shopping. Things now come to us instead of us going to them. Okay, sure, nearly everyone has bought something on-line. But is it really necessary to buy that bag of potato chips though? Just buy stepping outside into the fresh air and walking to the nearby corner market, we won't be as lazy.
Convenience is one thing. Sometimes we go too far with convenience though. Now everything has to be convenient or it just won't be well excepted. With everything from drive-thru fast food chains to movies by mail, Americans are becoming lazier and lazier. We can not just seem to get off our collective fat butts and walk a little more or try a little hard to get something accomplished. It has to be fast or it has to get out of the way.
Learn more about this author, Zenaida Medina.
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No
First, a recent study showed that Americans are the most charitable people in the world and that the largest part of all charitable money given by Americans is given by average individuals, rather than corporations or extremely wealthy Americans. If "regular" Americans have this much money to give to charity there's a good chance they've worked to earn it.
Are Americans out in fields, plowing and planting and pulling? No, but that's not because they're lazy. Its because it isn't generally how Americans make their living these days. Americans enjoy many conveniences as a result of living in a country where so many hard-working people worked to create the lifestyle that Americans enjoy today. Having and enjoying those conveniences, however, does not mean people are lazy. It just means they can spend their time and energy on other things, and Americans do that.
Whether an observer were to go to where Blue Collar workers are putting in their hard day's work or to offices where professionals stay until 9:00 p.m. and beyond or to suburban homes where mothers are busy and sometimes overworked from morning until night, Americans are not, generally, lazy.
Do Americans send their 14-year-old boys into war, the way some countries do? No. That's not about being lazy, though. That's about protecting children. Do Americans drive their young students to achieve the way people in some countries do? No, not usually. That, though, is also not about being lazy. It, too, is about valuing well roundedness in childhood. I'm not particularly saying either way is right or wrong, only that laziness is not the reason Americans often don't push their children as hard.
America was not a country that was built on laziness, and it would not be the country it is today if it were a country of lazy people. No country as wealthy or powerful or educated as the United States could be built if "the average American" were lazy. Are there some lazy people in America, just as there are lazy people in other countries? Sure. Is the average American lazy? No - and the proof is in the fact that the United States, a country that is only 231 years old, has become the super-power it is. That doesn't happen when a culture is full of lazy people or when the "average" citizen is lazy.
Learn more about this author, Lisa H Warren.
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