You Americans have always had it easy compared to us Brits. When I were a lad, in Merrie Englande, we all had diphtheria and lived in cardboard boxes (I might have nicked the last bit from M.Python - but you get the picture).
Actually, I really think that the modern world is crap - cheap, stupid and tawdry. Nothing is sacred and everything of value is sacrificed to the great god, PROFIT. This is no basis for a civilisation!