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Yes, the average American citizen is lazy. For that matter the average citizen in any country is lazy. But it is probably true more for Americans as they have grown used to a life of ease and comfort. There are various reasons for this like food habits, work culture, financial profligacy and the environment.

Most Americans have got used to a life without stress and strain. There is not much competition and they can easily get into school, college. Till before the recession, it was always easy to get a job. So life was pretty easy for the average citizen and money was sufficient to lead a comfortable life. Given these circumstances who would like to work hard? Naturally, people got used to this life of comfort and grew lazy over a period of time.

If you study a third world country like India and China then you will realize that people face competition from day one. As per statistics, 6% of applicants are admitted to a kindergarten which is lower than the average at Harvard! So you can imagine the kind of pressure people have to withstand. There is no scope for laziness in such an environment.

Look at people around you from all walks of life and you will realize that people never lose an opportunity to skip work. Look at an average office goer. A person is usually in office for about eight hours a day. Out of this about three hours go towards lunch, coffee and bio breaks. Then there is the meeting and the side conversation thereafter. If you add all these up then the actual work time is probably eight hours. So what do you call this? Then consider the teaching fraternity. Most classes have a batch size of 14-20. How many teachers manage these many kids? Usually the number is 3. It is precisely for this reason that California asked for slashing the large number of teachers. Naturally, teachers did not like it as it would mean they would have to work hard. Remember, the old adage - work expands to fill available time!

Let us now look at the food habits of an average American. The propensity to have food at the local McDonalds or Burger King is very high. Fast food is an important reason for obesity, ill health and causes dreaded diseases like diabetes and heart disease. These lead to lethargy and ill health. They in turn lead to laziness.

One of the reasons for the current economic crisis is the American dream of owning homes. It is all fine when people live within their means and buy what they can afford. But it is totally different when they spread themselves thin and buy villas and homes that they cannot afford. People took loans beyond their means and after a period of time simply could not afford to payback. They were not willing to curtail other expenses with the result that they were not in a position to afford mortgage payments.

The welfare programs available to the average American is also to blame. People have access to great social benefits which is reassuring and leads to complacency. When things go wrong, the government steps in with huge bailouts that only makes people more indulgent.

As you can see the environment has a lot to do with making a person lazy. People tend to accept things that they grow up with and then build their life around it. So it is quite understandable if you think that the average American is lazy. This is the wake up call for the next generation. Like President Obama, mentioned Americans need to study harder as they will face future competition from citizens of countries like China and India who have grown up in an environment of tremendous competition and hard life.

Learn more about this author, Saurabh Pal.
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