Waste Not, Want Not

I never did understand that phrase "waste not, want not". I gather it means something to the effect "if you don't want, don't waste it, give it to me". But the phrase forces me to think about its meaning too much.

But it does relate to something I was thinking about, and that is the evolving state of the American mindset. Thirty years ago, one of the most famous commercials of the 70s was being aired. It depicts a guy driving in a convertible tossing all sorts of stuff out of his car on a stretch of highway. In the end, it shows a Native American crying, seeing the country littered. This was one of those early public service ads, and its lesson was not to litter.

While this commercial exaggerated the littering (the guy tosses out an entire bed out of his car), it reflected what some Americans thought at the time. If you had a can or a cup or anything and you didn't want it in your car, you jettisoned it outside. Today, the thought would barely cross one's mind. The only thing people toss out these days is cigarettes.

That, in combination with efforts to get Americans to recycle (and the government support to encourage recycling) has, I believe have changed the way Americans think about littering while driving. I've seen people's cars filled with crap (including my own), mostly because people can't imagine tossing them out on the street anymore. I know, there's penalties for littering, but you'd imagine it has to be one of those crimes that it's hard to get caught doing.

Can you imagine yourself littering while driving? At one point, people could.