D = S-M: How much suffering is too much?

If Frankl is right, that Despair equals Suffering minus Meaning, the culture has damaged the nature of man by removing "the image of God" from our definition.  But we have caused further damage.  We have raised our sense of expectation to the point of entitlement.  Frankl discussed suffering in the context of World War II and its atrocities.  Today, we have a lifestyle of plenty, but we still complain about our lot.
How do we view suffering?  My dad had Retinitis Pigmentosa and a hearing loss.  He worked two and three jobs when I was a kid, followed by job loss and disability.  I remember the sound of his voice, then the silence in the house on the day the state took his driver's license.  Bitterness did not mark his life, however.  He did not spend his time lamenting his loss and its unfairness.  We traveled, camped, maintained good friends, and went to church.  He and my mom gave us a normal home. 
So when Frankl refers to suffering, are we talking about real suffering or perception of suffering?  In our entitlement culture, what if suffering is working forty hours a week?  What if you don't have money for everything you want?  What if your relationships are not where you want them to be?  My car is a source of suffering.  By telling our generation that we deserve all these things, have we increased their suffering when life comes up short?

D = S-M: Why is our culture depressed?

Viktor Frankl gave us useful mathematics for understanding despair.  In the midst of World War II, he noticed those who were able to persevere amid horrible suffering were those who could attach meaning to their lives and to their circumstances.  Despair increases, he said, when meaning is removed from suffering.
Is it possible that our culture suffers from a loss of meaning?  Secularism teaches us we are independent of meaning from God, we have to make our own.  The problem is that man is not capable of sustaining meaning on his own.  We are finite- whatever meaning we cast cannot last because we don't last.  We are also derivative- meaning is not inherent in us.  We are made in the image of God which means our meaning is attached to his.  When we deny God exists, we deny ourselves meaning.  Frankl saw that without a transcendent meaning, suffering becomes unbearable.