An American Problem

· 75 to 90% of all primary care physician visits are stress-related. One survey reports that 75% of respondents experience “great stress” at least once per week. The National Sleep Foundation estimates the direct cost of lost productivity due to stress in the American workplace at $18 billion per year.

· 30% of high school students are bored in school and outside. Boredom is a causative link behind a number of problem behaviors such as alcohol and drug abuse, higher school dropout rates, and vandalism. Each problem behavior carries social and fiscal costs.

· 35.1 million Americans live in poverty. This number equals the population of California, the world’s 7th largest economy. StarPoint Inc. (a Bentonville, AR nonprofit organization that assists the poor) fixes the financial impact of poverty on government at between $290,000.00 and $1.3 million for each person in poverty during that person’s lifetime- a minimum cost of over 10.2 trillion dollars.

· One American consumes as much energy as 531 Ethiopians. Stephen Leeb, an expert on the intricate relationship between energy and financial markets, predicts another bout of double-digit inflation before the end of the decade because of spiraling energy costs.

America paves 1.3 million acres per year and loses another million acres of productive farmland to development. This equal a land area double the size of Delaware. This reduces quality of life by increasing vehicular traffic, adding heavy equipment, noise, and significantly impacting both air quality and ground water quality and quantity.

“Food imports have been steadily rising for four years. There were a few months in 2004 when the United States imported more food than it exported. Our food stores are now stocked with fruits and vegetables year-round with the origin and source changing with the seasons. That’s why horticultural products are the largest component of agricultural imports.” The steady increase in agricultural imports is a trend that Infanger said will not go away. Consumers expect a wide variety of foods from around the globe. He said exports will vary with production levels, global competition and the value of the dollar.”
http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/news/2005/Feb/imports.htm

It appears that part of our problem is that Americans rely on imported foods rather than eating locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables when they are in season.

· Nearly 50% of all workers are dissatisfied with their careers and suffer from overwork and stress. A recent study by one major employer places the cost of replacing one customer service representative earning $18,000 annually at nearly $58,000.

· 90% of companies recognize the need to adapt their cultures to fit changing markets. Despite this, 50% of these companies rate their efforts as fair or poor because they fail to produce the desired results while accidentally causing harm such as hostility, broken relationships, burnout, and failure to adapt to evolving market needs.

· 82% of employees consider overtly responding in kind to angry co-workers. 9% of these employees actually do so. Covert forms of aggression include failing to transmit needed information, coming late to meetings, wasting resources, or delaying responses to phone calls or memos- all at enormous cost to employers and the economy.

There are other documented indicators; in addition to the above which further corroborate my belief that what we are currently doing (i.e. the current “system”) is seriously broken and that creative, progressive, “out of the box” solutions are needed.