Last edited Tue Jan 20, 2026, 11:32 AM - Edit history (1)
As the U.S. as a whole has become a wealthier and more powerful nation, it resembles more and more a dysfunctional wealthy family where the spoiled affluent children think THEY are the ones that have it bad; that are entitled to so much more; that are somehow at a disadvantage despite their privileged upbringing and fall into a self-destructive cycle that results in throwing it all away. America somehow feels like Robert Downey Jr.'s character Julian in "Less than Zero."
The definition of "affluenza" reads like a description of our current situation as a nation:
A social epidemic of overconsumption, debt, and dissatisfaction from the relentless pursuit of wealth, often manifesting as entitlement and poor judgment. It is characterized by symptoms like stress, materialism, emptiness despite wealth, and an inability to recognize consequences.
Read that in the context of America's position versus that of other countries.
America certainly displayed a grotesque "inability to recognize consequences" in the last election. The price of eggs were too high--never mind that we were predicted to be in a recession that the Biden Administration had deftly avoided--and fascism-be-damned we wanted our cheap eggs.
And--to top it off--America elected a person that is the embodiment of the definition of affluenza.
It is karma that he is the one leading the U.S. to its destruction after so many years of making people just like him the most successful few generations of people to ever fail upward.
I never understood those rich kids that were so unhappy that they would send their life down a road of destruction despite all of the advantages they had and could have taken advantage of.
Now I live in a country that is doing it to itself.
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