I’m always confused by this sentiment. Maybe because I’m younger (born in 1978), but I haven’t percieved some radical shift in values. A rise in cynicism, sure, but that’s largely because technology has given us access to information that in the past Americans would have been blissfully ignorant about.
Americans are better educated today than they were when I was born, so I’m not sure how the average american is “Stupid”, or if they are, how this is a change from the past.
Fat? Yeah, people are getting fatter. For better or for worse, we have some of the fattest poor people in the world. Thank a plentiful cheap food supply, McDonalds and friends, High Fructose Corn syrup, and a lack of physical activity, especially at work.
I guess when people talk about “family values” they usually aren’t speaking against a culture of overconsumption. In fact, overconsumption is arguably a tradional American family value.
