Do we suffer from a lack of self-control?

Everyone lives by their wn principles. something that another person thinks is hard to do may be peanuts for u.americans have democracy so sometimes they just seem to lack self control. everyone has these problems. hell i have it so and im not even american! its all around the world too many distractions i guess. the other thing is america publicises too much about their problems. maybe thats why u start thinking ure the only one. its nothing to do with being american everyone goes through it. its juust some places dont voice it out.

I believe what you're saying...for me, it's dieting. I can really buckle down when I want to and lose tons of weight, keep it off for a long time and then go right back to my old habits. I don't know why that is, especially when I feel so good when I look good and am healthy...It's all a mental thing.

Well, I think self-control or lack thereof is a small part of it. The larger problem is that there's an over abundance of everything. We are genetically made for survival in 'lean times' so now that it's so easy to get anything you want quickly people still have the 'hoard' mentality. It takes work to overcome that but it can be done. Irresponsibility rather than lack of self-control could be said as the 'issue' for some of the things you listed.