Are we a nation of whiners?

Did you see the celebrity news tidbit about how Sean Combs had to give up his private plane jaunts because the cost of gas is too high (around $200,000 round-trip between LA and NYC)? Not surprisingly, he had something to say about it, along the lines of can you believe such an important dude gets stuck flying on commercial airlines with the rest of us riff-raff. Note that he did fly first class. But his conclusion is that the next POTUS better bring down gas prices.

Granted, Sean Combs is probably not representative of most of us. And I do applaud Combs for "airpooling." But I question his conclusion about bringing down the price of gas, and it makes me wonder if Phil Gramm is right and we are becoming a nation of whiners. So much of the fabled American Dream seems to be about striking it rich and living in the lap of luxury. Is this where it gets us? Wah, wah, wah. Life sucks if I can't fly my big, ol' gas guzzing plane for cheap anytime I want to. I think we've lived cheaply on the backs of the rest of the world for a long time, and there's no more free ride. Do I like it? Not really. But I do think the high prices of gas and food are causing us all to live a little more close to our homes, which is a good thing. What do you think?