Ethical Living: Trendy Guy vs. Hippie Gal

trendy guyA Day in the Life of Trendy Guy

  • B-fast: Double Mocha from Starbucks
  • Transportation: Ford Excursion
  • Day Job: Corporate Elite for Walmart
  • Home: High rise Condo in recently gentrified neighborhood.
  • Dinner: Fancy Steakhouse
  • Nightlife: Regularly volunteers at a soup kitchen.
  • Summer: Missions trip in the 3rd world.

hippie galA Day in the life of Hippie Gal

  • B-fast: Free-range eggs from local CSA
  • Transportation: Bike and Public Transit
  • Day Job: Barista for local fair trade coffee shop
  • Home: Commune in the city.
  • Dinner: Potluck with Community Garden.
  • Nightlife: Late night concerts, anti-corporate protest, and other leisure activities.
  • Summer: Road Trips, Music Festivals, and wild parties.

What I would suggest is, a healthy combination of the two. Basically, I would suggest that everything from Breakfast to Summers be made from a thoughtful and ethical standpoint. Below is a brief combination that I think might be ethical (certainly subject to further discussion).

A Day in the life of a World Changer

  • Breakfast: Dumpstered and purchased from a local CSA.
  • Transportation: Biking, Public Transit, Carpooling, and driving less.
  • Day Job: A job that does not contradict your ethics and values.
  • Home: Modest living, shared if possible.
  • Dinner: Community Garden shared with friends and neighbors.
  • Nightlife: Community movie nights, craft nights, scrabble, soup kitchen, playing with the neighborhood kids.
  • Summer: Ethical summer ventures.

Now, it’s time for discussion. Does your life line up with Trendy Guy, Hippie Gal or World Changer? If so were and if not, what areas do you need to change? Or, what areas do you think I’m way off base on. Let the discussion begin.

7 thoughts on “Ethical Living: Trendy Guy vs. Hippie Gal”

  1. I’m a mix of all I think. We do spend dinners and evenings with family and I think that’s a good thing. In my opinion it’s possible to give yourself too much to others that you forget your family. Here’s my day.

    Breakfast: Several cups of Fair Trade Coffee
    Transportation: I drive a gas hog – a Jeep but I drive very little – just to work, the groc. store and church.
    Day Job: A caregiver to developmentally disabled adults
    Home: a two-story in the suburbs that we built ourselves.
    Dinner: at home with family
    Nightlife: watch T.V., movies or talk to friends
    Summer: go on a mission trip

  2. Sorry I’m at work, so can’t write something more substantive… But I wanted to just comment… I see that on more than one occasion, you’ve recommneded “dumpstering”… I can respect how it might work for some people, but for me I couldn’t get over the possibility of germs/sickness/disease from foods that were thrown away… So that’s one thing I could never do nor highly recommend to others, especially if they’re concerned about their health.

  3. Hmm. A mix.
    -Breakfast: Usually cereal, yogurt, something like that. I have this weird idea that food that is dumpsterable should be left for people who need to dumpster dive for food, not for rich kids who like to get dirty. Also, in some segments, this *is* the trendy.
    -Transportation: Fuel-efficient Civic. Commute that is deliberately only 3 miles.
    -Day Job: A job that does not contradict your ethics and values. Check.
    -Home: Small-modest size. Shared with one human and 4 animals.
    -Dinner: Not so good on this one. Often out, with use of non-recyclable to-go container.
    -Nightlife: whatever’s free.
    -Summer: see “nightlife”

  4. re: eating from the trash. I’ve done it. I’ve found fully packaged canned goods and nonperishables thrown out many times, usually by college students or the like who are moving and don’t have enough sense to drop the stuff off at a food pantry or their neighbor’s house. Also, stores throw out food that has hit its sell by date even though it is still good for a while after that. I personally wouldn’t get anything that was not properly packaged because I’m pregnant and have kids and don’t need the stuff bad enough to take the small risk. But I’ve seen plenty of things like vegetables that would be fine if washed up (which you need to do with any produce anyway).

    I read a story recently where a woman said she was at the store and got a couple of cartons of orange juice that had been marked down because it was a few days before the sell by date. After she got the items, she noticed an employee loading the rest into a cart and wheeling them away so she followed him and saw him put them all in the dumpster. So she pulled them out of the dumpster and that is how she got started getting food from dumpsters.

    The point is that you can be as picky as you want. There is a lot of discarded food that’s perfectly safe.

  5. I think if you all were to see the amount of food that gets thrown out by stores you’d not be too worried. Maybe in an area with a high concentration of needy people. But not in most areas. Besides, Food Not Bombs gets food out of the dumpster to share with homeless people and others.

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