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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American Wealth

I have never really been hungry.

I don't know what gnawing perpetual hunger is. I don't know what going to bed hungry every night is all about. I have never really wondered where my next meal was coming from.

I have never really been thirsty.

I have never been so dehydrated that I had to drink contaminated water.

I have never really been cold.

Really cold as in continuously unable to generate enough body warmth to be comfortable.

I have never really been homeless.

I have always had an address. I have always had a house to live in.

I have never really had to work hard.

Work hard for days on end, exhausted at the end of the day and bone-tired at the beginning of the day.

I have never really been poor.

I do not know how 80% (at least) of the worlds population feels every minute of every day of their entire lives.

Who am I to say that I understand any part of the world situation?