American Mindset

So I've been catching up on my world politics and of course I am getting all rilled up and enraged..what else is new? I feel like no matter what Americans are not going to see what is happening in the rest of the world. We go out and spend $80 on a pair of jeans because they make our butt look perfect, when women on the other side of the world are scraping to buy their family of 5 dinner on her $1 a day. How did we get to this point? How are we as Americans so blinded to what is going on? When i lived in South Africa we did a mini mission while we were there and helped out a local low income housing complex. The people that we spent our time with were lesbian prostitutes and families of 5 living in one room. We were to only spend $1 a day (the average income of the housing complex) to do anything that we needed to do, we also were to gift a family with a meal at the end of the week. To feed that family with one meal, we had to save everything we had that week to buy food. These people live like that everyday, they also have to pay their rent, buy their children clothes, schooling, everything. I love being an American..but I am so ashamed of us sometimes. It breaks my heart and makes me sick that we live the way we do. I have been convicted lately to downsize, to live smaller and be a better steward of the money I am so blessed to be able to earn in this country. I long to be a pioneer and a voice in the darkness. All we need is love :) as the Beatles so amazingly put it. When it comes down to the American dream of needing a big house and a nice car...and owning this..owning that... Why? The happiest people in the world sit on the floor and eat in their 2 room house with their kids running all over, but have the love of Christ..and their family..what else do we need?