Seven Deadly Sins- Gluttony

    

    Back after a long labor day weekend and I could not think of a more deserving sin than Gluttony!  So the basic definition of gluttony is "over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink, or wealth items, particularly as status symbols."  As with the first two sins I have written about the connections to current American society could not be more obvious.  In the past fifty years we have seen obesity in America nearly triple.  In the early 60's 14% of Americans had a body mass index over 30.  Today that number is between 38-40%.  That alone is should raise some eye brows but it does not.  In America we waste around eleven billion pounds of food every year, that number is about 30-40% of our food supply.  With that in mind why would we see such weight gain while simultaneously wasting so much?  The only reason I can think of is that we are over producing and are not willing to share what we have with countries that have far less than we do.  

    

    Having been in the military and deployed to Afghanistan I got to see first hand how third world countries live.  The people there live in houses with no running water, no electricity, and most of the time no roof on their houses.  And I could see all of that from the village closest to the US Military base, which I have been told has been pushed forward and brought closer to what we consider normal.  The idea that we as Americans have so much while others have so little leads many people to advocate for these impoverished countries.  The biggest problem I see with that is we also have a huge population of homeless and less fortunate that we need to take care of first.  11.8% of our population live in a state of poverty.  Many struggle to put food on the table as we discard billions of pounds a year.  When we think of gluttony we think of over eating first.  With all the food we produce we should have little to no one going without a meal every day.  In school hot lunches are a privilege not a right, yet prisoners are given 3 meals a day at tax payer expense.  This is something we need to fix.

    The next thing we see in excess is wealth.  America is one of the wealthiest countries on earth.  We have no reason to have such a high percentage of people living in poverty.  And that is what most leftists want people to focus on.  It is not wrong but giving people free stuff will only increase the number of people living in poverty.  As more people are given everything the number of people who work to support that system dwindles.  Once there are more takers than givers the system will collapse.  That is why politicians such as Bernie Sanders have consistently failed to win the nomination while running for President.  The policies pushed by him and others would only bankrupt America and drive us further away from being a first world country.  We have seen rebellions of people claiming the top earners in America are the evil villains as they own a huge percent of the wealth in our country.  Truth is most of them earned it and work hard for many more hours a day to maintain it.  Not long ago we were a country that believed in hard work and earning your keep.  Now people play victim and look for the easy route to a lawsuit or hang their hopes on winning the lottery.

    As I have watched our society begin to crumble and have seen the rise of hate, distain of success, envy of what others have, and violent outbursts I find myself wondering how fast this will fall or if we still have time to stop it and rebuild our great country.  We see people eat until they cant stuff any more into their mouths, starve for likes and fame on social media platforms, greed and envy turn brother against brother, and most of all the selfishness that comes with thinking the world owes you and you don't need to work to succeed.  A quick look at history will tell you when every great civilization has gotten too big and too successful the seven deadly sins creep in slowly and then before they know it they fall.  We have gotten to that place here in America.  We have gotten to a point of almost no return.  You may not be able to change the world but every action you take creates ripples that will grow larger through time.  Be nice to your fellow man, share everything you can, and most of all be aware of what you are doing.  Take time to smile at someone today.  Take time to share a meal with someone less fortunate.  Change starts with us, but then again maybe I am just a glutton for punishment!