I grew up poor, and I still remember the day my mother took me for the exotic treat of dinner at a Chinese restaurant. We had chicken almond ding, fried dumplings, sweet and sour chicken, and won ton soup. This, to me, was some amazing food.

Then I went home and back to my usual Southern diet of fried taters, pork chops, grits, and eggs – good stick-to-your-ribs Southern food. Now, a couple of decades later, I have Chinese food too often, and fried taters not enough. I'm jaded. I don't care so much for the sweet and sour chicken, the moo goo gai pan, the hot and sour soup. But I don't have time to make those crispy perfect fried taters.

This brings me to my point. For the last two decades, Americans have been treated to unprecedented wealth. Who among us does not own a decent flat-screen television, a good computer, a car that gets you from point A to point B with reasonable reliability? Our closets are full, our homes are full, and we have as much Guitar Hero as we want. Even the poorest working-class family has a television, a VCR or DVD player, a game system, a good stereo, cable or satellite television, a refrigerator, clean running water, a closet filled with clean clothes, central air conditioning.

That's just us ordinary people. For the so-called elite, those whose incomes are in the top five percent or who aspire to their pretentions, there have been private planes, art, wonderful vacations to edgy destinations, designer purses, and huge homes.

Let's contrast that with our grandparents, only sixty years ago or so. A typical home, built for the veterans returning from World War II, was tiny compared to today's McMansions – around 1200 square feet compared to 3000 or more, only one bath and kids sharing rooms instead of each kid having his own room and bathroom. Moms worked at home mostly, doing the hundreds of small and medium things that keep a family running. Kids did not have video games; instead, they biked around with their friends, mostly staying out of trouble. You cleaned your plate, and you ate lettuce-not arugula-on your salads.

There's a word for what we are, since we've been so spoiled: jaded. But that's not all bad. America's enormous appetite for consumption (is that redundant?) has driven global wealth and expansion. Fewer farmers grow more food; machines and increasingly-harnessable energy enable the construction of mass homes, factories, shoes, cars, Playstations. With increased production of the basics, more people are freed to do all the creative and innovative work that makes it fun to be human – things like game design and toymaking.

Except in places where the political atmosphere makes it impossible to effectively use farm machinery, or where destruction is more common than creation, none of us stand in danger of starving. Sure, we may be eating beans instead of steak, but look at us -- we are well-nourished. We stand no real chance of running out of clothes. We may run low on energy, but since most of our electricity comes from coal even now, only the worst energy crisis will put us in real danger.

So here's the question: what is the worst that can happen to us as our economy crashes and burns? We could damage our economy all the way back to Leave It To Beaver, I guess, when the mothers encouraged everyone to clean their plates, yes even the peas. Some people will suffer more than others – but gosh darn it, our church food pantries are full, a good food drive will fill them even more, food stamps fill gaps in, and even if we had the horror of 15% or 20% unemployment – a whole lot of that will be second-income spouses. And single parents? I hate to say this, but – get married. I can tell you from experience, it's a bazillion times easier that way for both of you. Half the stress of this financial crisis would be solved if people would just marry their baby-mamas.

There will always be people who are outliers, who lose all six family jobs on the same day and, because they were living day-to-day, lose their apartment the next month. But guess what? Those people were always there. Bad luck is bad luck, and that's why you save some of your income, even if you can't afford to. Put back the $50 game, and put the money in the bank. It's insured, and it will be there for you later.

The point is, some belt tightening won't hurt America. In fact, there's a pretty good chance it will be good for us, as it will force us to be grateful for what we have and may make us smarter in the future about saving and planning.

So is anyone actually important saying that? According to the Dems, the sky will fall, ducks and turkeys will rain from helicopters, and the earth will swallow up all the environmental sinners if we don't Do Something. And they have Done Something. According to the Republicans, the moon will blot out the sun and Wall Street will be consumed by one of the Elder Gods if we don't pass tax relief.

Now, I'm all for tax relief. But isn't all this hysteria kind of stupid? I mean, we can live well on (cheap) meat and potatoes instead of she-crab soup and baby lettuce salad. Aren't there an awful lot of us who could stand to lose a pound or two anyway? Do we really need six televisions in the house? And if we just do what Americans have always done, work hard and move forward, won't we come through this just fine if people just quit futzing around with stuff?

Please, guys, take the last chance you have – and waste this crisis.