America Dines at the Trough of Excess

What happened to self control in this country? What happened to enough was enough? This evening at a Chinese buffet the man at the table beside me vocalized to his table mates he set a mission to eat 100 oysters on the half shell. As soon as the oysters would come out from the kitchen he would load up two dinner plates and take them all, leaving nothing for anyone else. At one point the kitchen stopped restocking and he demanded more oysters.

Some people may think if they put oysters on the buffet and tell people it’s an all you can eat buffet then those oysters are fair game. Those of us who own businesses feel for the restaurant owner who is offering a nice variety of items and yes a few more expensive items. But does that mean we fore-go self restraint and self respect and just gorge at the trough of excess? Apparently so.

AIG offers large bonuses not tied to performance. Auto executives fly in private jets with their hands out crying poor mouth to Congress. Congress screams at TARP recipients for Vegas “Junkets” yet flies with expensive security details to Europe on junkets of their own. for millions of American, four door sedans weren’t enough we needed Hummers. A modest home within our financial means wasn't enough, we needed to live in McMansions we couldn't afford

When gas in the Carolinas hit a shortage and prices jumped 50 cents a gallon in one day I watched a man pull up in his pick-up truck with a 55 gallon drum in the back he was filling with gasoline.

Screw everyone else as long as I got mine. What an attitude.

To the rest of the world we are the land of opportunity and when they see how we are with the gluttony, excesses and the wastefulness we have in this country they are disgusted. Now that our greedy attitudes are impacting the global economy, they like us even less.

I know we are in a deep recession yet restaurant parking lots are full. Malls are full of people. The new IKEA store in Charlotte has long lines of traffic of people wanting to get in and make purchases.

Could America really handle sacrifice? Could we handle self control for the benefit of the entire country? Or, have we gone too far down the path of “me first” that we will never again worry about self control and only worry about the controls and regulations placed on us?

Control that is imposed on you is always tougher to handle than the controls we place on ourselves. I pray in this country we never have to learn that lesson the hard way, when it’s too late.