At the risk of sounding maudlin or preachy, has our society gone past the point of no return. Is this current economic travesty the tipping point of all our excesses.
Consumerism has reached gluttony. Two thirds of the country are either overweight or obese.
More than one-half of the new vehicles bought in this country in recent years have been trucks or SUVs. The trend has been to buy the widest, highest and longest vehicles available. Of course all of these drivers have large families or carry heavy loads on back roads. The fact that these vehicles were responsible for an inordinate share of traffic accidents, pollution and gasoline consumption meant nothing to all these consumers who found these vehicles totally indispensable.
A few of the other excesses we've become accustomed to:
People running up huge credit card debt with no idea how they were going to pay it off.
Families buying homes that were beyond their means. Often with no or little money down and with risky mortgages.
Households have been saving less and refinancing their homes so that they might consume on a higher level.
Financial companies devising products and securitizing loans meant to benefit no one but the executives and their out sized bonuses.
Financial advisors not content with vast riches felt compelled to rip off the public to become even richer.
The appetite for unearned rewards has been growing steadily for years.
Have our values deteriorated to the point where we needed an economic tsunami to bring us to our senses.