It’s amazing the sense of entitlement we have in our culture.

The other day, I had a friend try to explain to me about how awful it is that so many are falling below the “poverty line” nowadays, and I then tried to explain to her that people are considered “poor” in this culture who live like KINGS AND QUEENS compared to people in other countries who have similar skills & education.

In our culture, almost everyone has something to eat… worst case scenario, there is welfare/food banks.

You can even buy a perfectly good iPod for $10.00 from a crackhead in any major city if you really want one. The person it got stolen from just goes out and buys a new one, and life goes on. Cops would laugh at you if you called them about a stolen iPod.

We have lost respect for material goods, while at the same time we are worshiping material wealth. It seems contradictory, but that’s how I see it.

I like to ask people who whine about our standard of living going down:
“What if everyone in the world wanted your standard of living?”

The answer is obvious: global environmental devastation. In fact, the concept of such conspicuous consumption for the world’s 6 billion or however many there are of us is completely unthinkable anyway. There isn’t enough.

There is a natural equalization going on right now I think. It’s like physics. This artificial bubble of conspicuous consumption is about to burst. People all over the world who are *rich* will have iPods; poor people in our culture will soon not be able to afford iPods.

It’s not natural anyway, for average people to enjoy the luxuries that we do.

In reality (in a realistic economy), you would/should have to work your BUTT off if you want the kind of sexy little gadgets that these college students think it is their God-given right as first-worlders to enjoy even though they are “poor” or “broke”.

We’ll see major inflation here soon, and those iPods will be for the super-rich only.