Is America spoiled?
Are Americans spoiled. I can’t really think of more detail than that… except to say that compared to many cultures and countries.. Americans seem to be spoiled .. is that a misconception?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
40 Answers
Parts of it smell that way…
Spoiled is a relative term. Americans are prosperous, and prosperity has its rewards.
Americans complain too much about what the Joneses have.
No, we pay dearly for our success. In the form of everything from the incessant bashing from the ignorant and jealous to the attacks from those who would see us all dead in the name of their perverted religion.
Many Americans are. Most of our population has never lived through a period of severe economic hardship such as the 1930’s. Most consider to be “basic rights” things that people in the developing world struggle to achieve and often fail to get. The current economic situation has been a real awakening to many. Americans have developed a sense of “entitlement” without the willingness to pay the level of taxes necessary to support these programs.
@proXXi LOL. You said so much with No comma… XD I like it.
I was visiting my aunt and uncle a few years ago and they had book with pictures of the contents of about 50 households from 50 different countries. They were all middle class mom and dad with two kids houses.
They moved everything out into the front of the house. The United States just beat the crap out of every other country. We are consumer whores.
edit :: Our consumption comes with a very real consequence. Most of us are a few paychecks away from being homeless.
There does seem to be a pervasive attitude that we should be able to have what we want, no matter what the consequences for the rest of the planet.
proXXi, Americans also do not understand their stations in life, and tend to think they have Constitutional rights they simply do not have.
An example is the right for gays to marry. Gays do not have a constitutional right in this country to marry. The reason is not because they are gay; it is because NOBODY is guaranteed by the Constitution that they can marry.
People have been sold on the notion of entitlement, and that slippery slope is getting icier.
@birdland33 What the constitution does guarantee is equal protection under the law, so that one individual doesn’t have more advantages under the law than another.
Look, yes Americans are “spoiled” on a global scale. So are the people in Canada, the UK, France… any first world nation. The differences between first world nations are customs and culture, not degrees of being “spoiled.” Most americans own (what I would consider) “too much stuff.” But the things americans own are of lesser value than the things that people in France own. Quantity or quality? Both are spoiled compared to someone in Africa who doesn’t even have access to clean water.
Indeed it does guarantee equal protection, and since the right to marry is not a constitutional guarantee, it is not protected. My point was simply Americans have a tendency to say “you are trampling on my Constitutional rights” without knowing what those constitutional rights truly are.
Yes. Huge portions of the American public are ridiculously spoiled. Most of us lead pretty cushy lives compared to people in a
lot of the rest of the world.
@birdland33 And yet, marriage is accorded legal status by the states and therefore has legal protections associated with it. That doesn’t happen at the level of the US constitution, but once it happens at a lower level, such as at the state level, then isn’t the fourteenth amendment saying that those protections must extend to every citizen in good standing within that state?
Most of us are, yeah. I would consider anyone who has even slightly more than they need to be at least a little spoiled.
Agreed @birdland33 multiple GAs
Sorry for the lack of commas @NaturalMineralWater. The wife just had to look up the 1938 film production of “A Christmas Carol” before I had a chance to edit. : )
I don’t think of Americans as spoiled. I do think they are unaware of what life is like outside of the US, fail to remember the hardships of people before us who built our great country, and take life in the US for granted, almost ungrateful. Not everyone, but a vast majority.
@JLeslie that sounds like spoiled to me lol.
@LKidKyle1985 LOL! I guess maybe? I think of spoiled as also being demanding, whiny (sp?), and manipulative. I’m not sure we are that bad.
If everyone lived as Americans do, we’d need five Earths worth of resources to sustain it. Sounds pretty spoiled to me!
@proXXi Oh, I took it to mean “No, however” ... lol
@laureth If everyone came to live as Americans do, the world population would have adapted as the situation developed.
Innovation and adaptation, it’s what humans do.
I’m not sure how you adapt to needing more resources than the world can provide, unless other people are (willingly or unwillingly) giving you theirs. If everyone lived as high on the hog as Americans do, that means there’s no one living low enough to begin balancing that out. We do innovate and adapt, but technology doesn’t solve things that are physically impossible. (It only ferrets out the physically possible stuff we didn’t know how to do yet.)
I said “as the situation developed”.
In other words, as the worlds resources dwindled, humanity would have adapted as a whole before we ran out.
Considering we use resources faster now than they can be replaced – and don’t seem to be slowing – I’ll be interested in seeing how we adapt here and now, then.
Well, according to wikipedia: “professionals are often unwilling to use the label because it is considered vague and derogatory” If by spoiled, you mean we expect to find the kind of freedoms and choices that we have in our country, everywhere else, then yes.
I actually read an American visitor to Germany complained because he was not given his “right” to free speech. To not realize how many privileges we take a “given” that others don’t have, could be considered spoiled. I had some associates denied entry into a country when they presented their passport because of their outspoken reputation in the U.S.
What? Some people actually go to bed hungry? Why don’t they just get a job? This is the type of spoiling that I find to be very hard to fathom.
Many visitors to other countries are completely ignorant about clothing restrictions. It is so far out of their spoiled experience, they simply do not believe it.
With so many Americans losing their homes, losing their jobs, I think we are less spoiled than many think.
Yes, this is the land of plenty, and we have been blessed not to have a war on our homeland in many years, but we have sent our kids to war, and we have gotten them back in ways we hoped we wouldn’t.
But we are Americans, and we are the dogs that survive these struggles.
@filmfann You bring up a good point, but I often think that what we (as Americans) consider a “struggle” would be an utter catastrophe in another country.
Americans work hard at least most do. We don’t get an automatic vacation like in Europe. So if Americans want to live comfortably as possible in the only life we get, then why not? Americans are almost expected to apologize for our successes but others are not? There is a reason we get to have what we have and it is democracy and capitalism. It it perfect? Nope, but the opportunity is there if one wants it. It’s tough here in America. You better be prepared to bust your ass and go for it if you want to be rewarded for your efforts. It isn’t fair here either like some people think it is elsewhere.
The spoiled ones are the emo 20 somethings who whine constantly and want it all right now without putting in the time or effort. If I need assistance in a store or anywhere I purposely seek out one of the old pharts working there because it’s a safe bet they are going to treat you right and they will actually know what they are talking about because they care about what they do. The younger ones are usually vapid at best and could care less about what they are doing.
While spending the night in OKC last week I saw in the news on TV where a Highway Patrolman was given accolades from a passer by for helping 2 teenage boys by changing their spare tire. Sounds like a really good officer but what struck me was why in the hell can’t 2 teens come up with the fortitude to change their own tire? What the hell? That is lame. ,or prissy, just sorry. How many flutherers here will be honest and admit they would be at a loss if faced with a flat tire? Or could they even find it somewhere in the car?
This is a photo essay of what a family eats in a typical week, in various places around the world. I think it’s a clear indication of how spoiled Americans are – along with the rest of the first world, really.
A good counter question is, is the world jealous of america?
@LKidKyle1985 I think it depends what country the onlooker is from. Also, I find many people outside of the US idealize America. My sister-in-law, who is Mexican said that she thought living in America would be easier, fairer (is that a word), and that the government was not corrupt and not in anyones personal business. She defines freedom differently than I would. She also thought it would take less work to be successful in America, she did not understand is that all America really promises is that you are not confined to the social class you were born into, and that everyone has a right to an education, you still have to put in the work to acheive.
My point is they may think we are spoiled looking in from the outside and basing assumptions on the media, but it is not a totally accurate picture.
Yeah, I think Americans are fortunate. But the word spoil implies that what we have was not earned, and that is by no means the truth. I think a lot of people who say we are spoiled have this image of the “lazy american” but I think they watch too much family guy.
@birdland33 But, the rest of the world who perceives healthcare as a right, the American’s are less guilty of this than almost all of the rest of the industrialized world and you can throw in some of the third world. The comparison should be made to 911 care, police services, fire department. In America pretty much it has become commonplace, many would use the word right, almost everywhere to have these protections, I see healthcare as being similar to those.
@birdland33, I agree completely, and I’ve said exactly the same thing for years: Rights are things that you have by virtue of being alive; no one has to give or pay for anything for you. Goods are things that are essential to live or nice to have, but things that someone has to make, mine, farm, produce, manufacture or in some other way provide for you—and which must be paid for.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with a government providing goods, as long as we identify them as such. Governments provide schools, roads, police and fire protection, a system of laws and courts to adjudicate them. Those are all public goods. (We can and do differ on the balance between which “essential goods” should be provided by government and which by private enterprise or individuals for themselves. But we recognize most public goods as just that.)
Even food, which is more essential to our lives than health care is left mainly to private enterprise and individuals. You can avoid going to doctors for years and years; skip meals for a week and you’ll be in dire straits. If we ever adopt the lunatic idea that “food is a right”, then heaven help us if we also determine that it’s “too important to be left to the market” to provide. (I agree that we do provide government food aid to some individuals all the time and to some parts of the country as disaster relief. I’m talking about “most of us, most of the time”.)
If we adopt the idea that health care is a “right”, then it follows that everyone should have health care—regardless of whether they do anything to earn it or pay for it in any way. A “right” can’t be withheld.
As long as we recognize that health care is a public good and is not a right, then I have no problem with discussing how much or how little government should be involved. (I generally argue against “government issue” from the pragmatic standpoint that government generally fucks up everything it touches.) We live in a republican democracy, more or less, so I have to go along with the majority rule on this, but I do try to help educate the fence-sitters that, “gosh, aren’t supermarkets cool, compared to the way the Soviet Union used to ‘provide’ for its citizens?”
Absolutely Americans are spoiled; they are spoiled to luxuries and conveniences that most people did not have 75 or even 50 years ago. The older this country gets the further away it gets from knowing how to survive without every convenience and luxuries’ at their fingertips. Is progress good if society cannot survive without its advances? I believe we have reached the point in technology and modern conveniences that we have crippled ourselves and our children. We have become accustomed to the comforts that advancements have made. Hot and cold water at our fingertips, doing laundry at a moment’s notice. If we are cold, turn up the thermostat, if we are hot turn it down, if we are hungry we go to the mega super grocery store. If we are bored we turn on the TV or play video games, we want to go on vacation we get on a plane or in the car and go. We shop for entertainment; we buy, buy, and buy. Yes, all this comes with a price and its more than just the time we spend at a job to play for all this; it is the loss of appreciation of how to live without these things. What if you had to carry your water, chop your wood, grow your food, walk or ride a horse and a vacation might be just a day visiting your family. Recreation was playing outside with your friends or siblings, laundry day was an all day thing because you had to heat your water and wash on a rub board and then hang them on a line to dry. Yes, life was hard work but families were intact. You did not have spoiled kids that thought you existed to give them their every whim and wish. You did not have adults who had a sense of entitlement because they were handed over to as a child. The children did not run the home, the parents did. America as a nation is advanced in modern technology but as a society, we have crippled ourselves and lost all appreciation and knowledge of what life would really be like without the things we take for granted. It is fragile thin line to total societal melt down when technology fails us and the more complicated technology becomes the more likely for failure.
@oopie54 – Welcome to Fluther!
I would agree that we as a modern society in the first world are spoiled the way that you describe. However, I don’t think it’s only Americans who have video games, washing machines, and other such playthings.
I totally agree that we are not the only nation who has let modern technology put them on a very fine line of existence in the event that technology should fail but this blog is about “Is American Spoiled”. Pandora’s Box has been opened and there is no going back at least voluntarily to a simpler less complicated and less technical life. Unfortunately “progress” will continues and other countries will crank out “spoiled societies” like Americans have.
Answer this question 
