During the economic downturn that started in 2008 one of the social trends (in the United States at least) has been a reversion to basics. The media has had numerous stories about how the public seems to be recoiling from the excesses of the past. The savings rate of the American public has started rising considerably. People who are purchasing vehicles are buying more basic models and gas mileage is more important in the buying decision. Glamor destinations like Hawaii and Las Vegas are way down. The cover story of the April 27, 2009 American edition of Time Magazine is "The New Frugality". It goes on to say "The recession has changed more than just how we live. It's changed what we value and what we expect - even after the economy recovers. A special report."
As part of this I am presenting a collage of photos showing the excess in our society. Most of these monuments are American but not all. Some countries put us to shame in the excess category.
Las Vegas Strip at Night
It is pretty passe to link Las Vegas and excess. Vegas sets the standard. But how can you write about excess without mentioning Vegas? Anyway, I've had fun there.
Dubai's Palm Island And "The World
The Gold Standard for excess has to have moved from Vegas to Dubai with the creation of Palm Island and The World.
Bill Gates House
Michael Jackson's Nose
Michael Jackson has gone through an unknown number of operations and other procedures to make himself some sort of asexual, aracial thing. One of the byproducts of this has been his lack of a nose. Now he must wear fake noses. By looking at the photo it appears he has a number of noses so his nose can match his outfit. And his skin. God only knows what he did to it to lighten it. To think that you can actually remake your sex and race is sick.
Salaries
The salaries of executives and others has grown to astronomical levels in the last few years. The executive salaries are mostly an American issue. The salaries of sports and media figures is a world wide phenomenon.
These salaries have skyrocketed almost any way that you can look at them. They are going up much faster than the average pay of a working stiff. The graph that follows shows this.
What is particularly guiling is that many of the corporate CEO's that caused the subprime mortgage crisis are the same ones with the sky high salaries.
Tattoos
Any time you write about excess it is impossible to not be judgemental and let your background, culture and likes come out. If everything in the world is "value neutral" it would be impossible to define anything as excessive.
Ya, I know about tattoos being a cultural thing in many societies. What can I say.
"Excess is a state of something being present beyond usual, proper, or specified limits 2: undue or immoderate indulgence." Webster
Member of a Social Group Showing His Culture
Prisoner With Tattoos Made From Melted Rubber
Gold on Food
Eating sprinkled gold on food, or good decorated with gold, is popular with the very wealthy in some parts of Asia.
Pyramids
Maybe the ultimate example of excess would be a pyramid. By our standards they served no purpose at all. But, since they were build they have inspired awe by humans everywhere. They were excessive but I would argue that they have made a big positive difference in how we feel about ourselves.
AIG
Presently, AIG is the poster child of the Subprime Mortgage Crisis that has befallen the United States and much of the world. Pure greed drove them to insure mortgage pools that they knew they could never cover the losses of if more then a handful went bad. Along with them we can't forget FNMA, FDMC, Wall Street as a whole and many more.
Bernie Madoff
Purveyor of the biggest Ponzi scheme ever
Credit Cards
The credit card companies flooded the United States (I don't know where else) with credit cards, giving them to individuals with little hope of paying them back. They sometimes have Annual Percentage Rates of up to 35%. If someone gets behind, or there credit score declines, the interest rate on the cards increases.
What is worse is the banks (aka credit card companies) were able to push through Congress a rewriting of the bankruptcy law in 2002. It made it much tougher for individuals to declare bankruptcy and get away from the credit card debts.
Let's see.... Banks flood the country with high interest credit cards and give them to people who are bound to get into trouble with them. People get into trouble with there credit cards and the banks raise their interest rate even further. People default on there credit cards and try to declare bankruptcy. They are blocked from bankruptcy or are given very restrictive payback terms. What comes next? Go underground? Leave the country?
The Heart Attack Grill
Excess is one of those things we all hate, at least if the excess is others. Your's is acceptable. Maybe not something to be praised but it isn't a "big deal". It is like other "sins" in society: Drinking to excess, smoking, taking drugs, prostitution and gambling. None of these are good but society has had to learn how to regulate most of them. Society doesn't regulate prostitution or drugs and we see the end results. Society regulates alcohol and gambling and the negative side fects of them are kept more under control.
Government has not regulated some of these examples given very well and we are paying the price for that right now in our economy and lack of geopolitical status for the United States. Some of these examples could never be completely controlled, like tattoos, and I don't think we should. If all excess was controlled we would live in a very boring and conformist world..... even if I personally don't like that excess.
