The timing of this is interesting...

You posted this when I was reading a book that had a character say that the world has been going downhill these last 1000 years due to people valuing material things over spiritual (which I disagree with; in fact I'd argue the exact opposite), and now this morning I see this comic strip (http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/archive/images/pearls2036630051025.gif) in the paper.