Really?!? - How is this a controversy?

It's global warming, it's not global warming, we need better gas mileage, we should drive all the SUV's we want. Who hasn't heard some version of these arguments for more than a decade. Where I stand on global warming versus other people seems to be immaterial. Hearing all these "discussions" leads me to 1 and only 1 question:

Since when is being wasteful considered a good thing?

I'm serious, like the 7th year of a 3 year adjustable rate mortgage. I want someone to answer that question for me. More importantly, why have I never heard this question out of anyone on any side in any media?

Who, outside of the Rockefeller's, thinks back to their grandparents and waxes about their wasteful ways? I don't remember hearing stories of how Mamamaw and Papapaw rushed down to the superstore every weekend to buy disposable products they could quickly use up and throw away during World War II rationing. Would the "Greatest Generation" look fondly upon our need to get a new cell phone every 10 months? That is until the iPhone comes out which is the legal loophole one needs to upgrade their 4 month old Samsung BlackJack that they couldn't live without only weeks before.

People seem to be so proud of their great depression ancestors while I wonder how one can first brag on that and then later tell me, "I don't recycle because Penn & Teller showed that it costs more to recycle a bottle than to make a new one." I don't think that was the issue before us. The issue is that there is a limited supply of stuff. There is a limited amount of place to put the stuff that we are permanently done with.

Plain and simple, I don't see how being wasteful is a political issue or a morality play. Other than the American economy's need for consumer spending, how can people argue for being wasteful? Companies don't want to be wasteful. People don't brag about being wasteful, or at least they don't use that word when they do.

Some people that visit my home are actually annoyed that I don't have paper towels but rather kitchen rags/towels. The towels are neat and have nice patterns,. You can get a set of 3 for real cheap so I have about 12 or so in the house. Use them, they get dirty, I throw them in with the next load of wash. What is there to get annoyed about? I have owned my current house for 6 years and I only have the 12 towels versus how many paper towels that I would've used? When you get out of the shower would you dry yourself off with paper towels? How much would that cost you? Think back, did Mamamaw use paper towels in her kitchen?