Reflections on American Materialism, Part One

If there's one thing I dislike about American society, it's the shameless priviledged attitudes we hold. This has been further reinforced by the current grumblings over gas prices. I read on CNN.com that in a recent poll 69% of Americans say they are experiencing moderate to severe "hardship" due to the higher fuel costs. Hardship?!? Agghh!! I can understand how it might pinch those families living on the edge of poverty, but I doubt that number comes close to 69% of the country! But, apparently spending an extra $15-$20 to fill up your H3 is classified as hardship. And the irony is that according to the numbers, right now we're in some of the best economic growth our country has ever seen. If there is any time when Americans can afford higher gas prices, it's now.

The fact is that low gas prices have been seen as a vitual birth right to most Americans. The low costs of the past have made it possible for us to buy that bigger car or the more expensive TV, thereby fueling our ever increasing lust for more stuff. The most startling statistic to me is that for the first time in our history, the average savings rate for Americans is in the negative. That means we are now on average spending more than we make.

I may be the only person in this country that's rooting for prices to keep going up. I'm pushing for $5-$6 per gallon! Why not $8! Then maybe, just maybe, we might start producing energy efficient cars and homes, or develop alternative sources to fuel, or create a reliable public transportation network.

I say all of this though knowing that I'm a product of my culture just as much as I'm a critic of it. I've been convicted by the Holy Spirit many times of how I like to horde possessions and money to satisfy my own lusts. But, one of the reasons I detest what I see in society so much is that I also see it me. Lord, have mercy on us. We really do need to be transformed in our hearts and minds so that we can be in the culture but not of it.

In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, 'If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt!'...and Moses said, 'You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.' -Exodus 16:2-3, 8