The average consumer of America’s drug of choice, television, swallows about four hours a day.

Do the math, and you’ll see with eight hours of sleep, eight hours of work, and then say four hours for cooking, cleaning, commuting — and maybe, if there’s nothing else to do, a little family time — that about wraps up in a tidy bundle a day in the life of the modern American.

In other words, coming up after Seinfeld: the cemetery.

The average estimate comes from Nielsen — some estimates have the average number of hours at slightly more or less — and doesn’t really have anything to do with volunteerism.

That is, unless you consider the opportunity cost of four hours in front of the tube, computer, video game console, etc. Four hours that would be better spent at your local theater, school, hospital, police station, fire station, nature trail … see where this is going?

As reporter Lynsi Burton points out in this week’s status of volunteerism in Central Kitsap (see story A4), some community service opportunities draw the crowds, others don’t.

Some volunteer gigs require sacrifice, others compensate their help. Either way, getting involved and making constructive use of one’s time will make a person happier and more compassionate and potentially more prosperous.

There’s lots of work to be done.