The Arrogance of Affluence

In an earlier post American Wealth I made the following points...

• I have never really been hungry.
  
• I have never really been thirsty.
• I have never really been cold.
• I have never really been homeless.
• I have never really had to work hard.
• I have never really been poor.

Yesterday, the Thanksgiving holiday here in the USA, was a time of abundance, excess and celebration. We made a point of just laying around, being entertained by all-day television and then eating until we were as stuffed as the the turkey. And then there was pie.

Underlying my excesses crawled a thread of reflection. Yesterday it was the "We're so rich..." thread. Here are some of the points...

• We are so rich that we can stand for long periods of time in the shower letting clean, pure, heated (and then temperature regulated) water just splash against us and then run down the drain.

• We are so rich that we can heat our homes so that we can wear t-shirts and shorts indoors in the winter time.

• We are so rich that while cooking our abundant and excessive Thanksgiving dinner we actually complained that it was too hot.

• We are so rich that we can afford to let in the winter air to cool our too hot kitchen.

...and the number one way I can tell that we are so rich...

• We are so rich that we eat the pie filling and throw away large pieces of the crust.

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