How about wearing silk rather than wool or linen rather the tow? John Hancock's outfits with their gold embroidery would have given Liberace a run for his money. Was he not part of "Historic America"?
Chocolate? Sugar?
Also not part of our bedrock values and traditions? Maybe we should drink ale or only water?
I think it is interesting that we have created a world where such things are actually in reach of many rather then being in a world were only a few thousand on the whole earth could even dream of it while the rest ate bread that had a lot of chaff in it.
Now I do think it is silly (the gold leaf not the cheese) but I think a lot of things are silly without regarding them as the end of a culture.
Perhaps I should have stated that I consider this stone cold stupid in much the same way that vapid, surgically altered bodies and faces stare at the camera for the front pages of supermarket tabloids in order to be recognized and admired. Eating gold has nothing to do with valuable additions to diet, health or high performance transportation. It will never trickle down to the masses as a valuable addition to life and pleasure. It does, however, waste resources by flushing them down the sewer in a grotesque and ostentatious way that does nothing - nothing - for anyone but the senseless idiot that consumes such trash.
Surely, that says something about the age we live in. If you don't see it, well, bon appetit!