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Just thinking about how we got into our current predicament. I just wanted to see what people think about the American Dream.
To me, I believe that many people feel that the American Dream consists of (include others, if you wish)...
* owning your own house
* going to and affording college
* having health care
* belonging into the middle class
* owning large cars, particularly SUVs (well, not anymore)
...
Do we refuse to admit that this is not feasible for everyone?
What is the difference between the working class and middle class? Should they have the same amenities. People in the middle class do not expect the same amenities as the rich. However, the working class seems to expect the same amenities as the middle class. Obviously, Americans should be afforded certain services. Most of us believe in healthcare, secondary education, etc. But is it realistic?
What do you see as the American Dream?
Is it attainable for everyone or just an illusion?
The American Dream is simply based on economic opportunity.
The younger generation is being taught to expect less for more. They think a 401K is as good as a pension, but hey, look, the government and it's employees get pensions...because they KNOW pensions are better.
I am waiting for enough Americans to get tired of this government interfering in their lives. I see people who post on this forum saying how the government should regulate this or that, as if the government really does fix things. Just more intrusion. They have no concept of not being controlled.
Maybe when enough Americans get tired and pick up their pitchforks and turn things around, the way it's supposed to be, where government is afraid of its people, yeah, that's really why the populace is supposed to be armed...maybe things will change.
People are too accepting of those being in control taking their freedoms away daily. One day, they won't be able to get out of here when they want to.
The American Dream used to be - being able to provide for your family, and to steadily climb up the ladder of success in whatever field interested you. Work was - if not a pleasure - a necessary component of that. People took pride in what they did, because they produced something, they satisfied their basic needs while satisfying something more intrinsic - their need to expand their knowledge, their disciplines, improve their world.
Now we have almost no jobs left that are not service jobs - from the hospitality industry through the health care industry to the government industry. We don't make anything - we import things, we buy cheap and gaudy and easily replaced instead of taking pride in creating lasting and permanent expansions of our creativity. It used to be a challenge to "build a better mousetrap" - now people buy the plastic chartreuse mousetrap because when it breaks they can buy another and another and another... We have replaced the drive for quality with the cheap fleeting satisfaction of quantity, and wonder why we are never satisfied...
But it is not just in the aquisition of things, but in relationships, emotional gratification, spiritual satisfaction, if you will, where we seek quantity over quality. We look for the trendy, metrosexual man to fulfill our fantasies instead of enjoying the company of a sturdy, hardworking man who knows what he wants and steadily works hard to get it. We look for the airheaded Barbie doll instead of the woman who can converse intelligently on any topic. We seek out friends that are a good time rather than friends who share the same goals and hopes and dreams. We do not wish nor want permanence in our friends nor our lovers, because that would mean we would have to work for it, endure hardships and pain together, as well as share joys and successes together, still respecting each others' strengths and guarding each others' weaknesses. Even our godly representatives are passionately avowed protesters of this or that; prating endlessly about who's going to hell, who's going to heaven, who should live and who should die, die, DIE, screeching at the tops of their microphones to anyone who will listen. The people who promise us more, more, more instant gratification if we believe in them and follow them and do as they say are the ones we choose to lead us. We ignore or make fun of the ones who tell us the truth - especially when the truth means that we have to take responsibility for ourselves and our actions, our past and our future. We want the quick fix, the 10-second orgasm, the bigger and better and more ostentatious, and never ask what we have to lose to get it.
The current American Dream as stated IS an illusion - but as the OP said, it is THINGS - nothing in his post mentioned the real dream - that of succeeding through responsible effort and overcoming failure to achieve, to become, all that we as individuals (not as a group) can become. Everyone wants everything handed to them, because they have been told so often that they "deserve" it - simply for merely existing - that they believe it. If that is the current interpretation of the American Dream, than it is fool's gold, shiny and pretty, valueless and unsatisfying. Slaver after the useless pursuits and the useless mindless relationships, drool over and whine about the octomom and paris hilton and britney, while you hand the real world of personal success and achievement over to every media darling and political game-player. Then wonder why you are still so unsatisfied and feel so miserably cheated...
The American dream is to be living in a country that keeps you safe so you can spend your time providing for your family. Nothing on that list is assured or should be assured by your government. The only job the United States government really has is to keep us safe.
The American Dream used to be - being able to provide for your family, and to steadily climb up the ladder of success in whatever field interested you. Work was - if not a pleasure - a necessary component of that. People took pride in what they did, because they produced something, they satisfied their basic needs while satisfying something more intrinsic - their need to expand their knowledge, their disciplines, improve their world.
Now we have almost no jobs left that are not service jobs - from the hospitality industry through the health care industry to the government industry. We don't make anything - we import things, we buy cheap and gaudy and easily replaced instead of taking pride in creating lasting and permanent expansions of our creativity. It used to be a challenge to "build a better mousetrap" - now people buy the plastic chartreuse mousetrap because when it breaks they can buy another and another and another... We have replaced the drive for quality with the cheap fleeting satisfaction of quantity, and wonder why we are never satisfied...
But it is not just in the aquisition of things, but in relationships, emotional gratification, spiritual satisfaction, if you will, where we seek quantity over quality. We look for the trendy, metrosexual man to fulfill our fantasies instead of enjoying the company of a sturdy, hardworking man who knows what he wants and steadily works hard to get it. We look for the airheaded Barbie doll instead of the woman who can converse intelligently on any topic. We seek out friends that are a good time rather than friends who share the same goals and hopes and dreams. We do not wish nor want permanence in our friends nor our lovers, because that would mean we would have to work for it, endure hardships and pain together, as well as share joys and successes together, still respecting each others' strengths and guarding each others' weaknesses. Even our godly representatives are passionately avowed protesters of this or that; prating endlessly about who's going to hell, who's going to heaven, who should live and who should die, die, DIE, screeching at the tops of their microphones to anyone who will listen. The people who promise us more, more, more instant gratification if we believe in them and follow them and do as they say are the ones we choose to lead us. We ignore or make fun of the ones who tell us the truth - especially when the truth means that we have to take responsibility for ourselves and our actions, our past and our future. We want the quick fix, the 10-second orgasm, the bigger and better and more ostentatious, and never ask what we have to lose to get it.
The current American Dream as stated IS an illusion - but as the OP said, it is THINGS - nothing in his post mentioned the real dream - that of succeeding through responsible effort and overcoming failure to achieve, to become, all that we as individuals (not as a group) can become. Everyone wants everything handed to them, because they have been told so often that they "deserve" it - simply for merely existing - that they believe it. If that is the current interpretation of the American Dream, than it is fool's gold, shiny and pretty, valueless and unsatisfying. Slaver after the useless pursuits and the useless mindless relationships, drool over and whine about the octomom and paris hilton and britney, while you hand the real world of personal success and achievement over to every media darling and political game-player. Then wonder why you are still so unsatisfied and feel so miserably cheated...
I might disagree with a few things in there, but otherwise another masterful post!
To me, the old American Dream was about independence. An ability for stable employment with opportunity for those who may wish to go higher, a house (as could be afforded), a car, ability to help the kids with college and to retire in our house as it was our home. Not a grand life, just independent from feeling like we were owned.
To a small extent, that still exists. However, for not our own selfish greed and a growing size of government interference, it is very difficult to attain.
The American dream is to be living in a country that keeps you safe so you can spend your time providing for your family. Nothing on that list is assured or should be assured by your government. The only job the United States government really has is to keep us safe.
Who is this Government if it is not "We the People"?
Historian and writer James Truslow Adams coined the phrase "American Dream" in his 1931 book Epic of America:
“The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the Europeanupper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.[2]”
He also wrote:
“The American Dream, that has lured tens of millions of all nations to our shores in the past century has not been a dream of material plenty, though that has doubtlessly counted heavily. It has been a dream of being able to grow to fullest development as a man and woman, unhampered by the barriers which had slowly been erected in the older civilizations, unrepressed by social orders which had developed for the benefit of classes rather than for the simple human being of any and every class.
Many of the purported social welfare programs originated in the "New Deal" created the basis for fundamental change in the culture and dependencies which became expectations/entitlements.
Most people want the benefits. Few people want to pay for them.
* owning your own house
* going to and affording college
* having health care
* belonging into the middle class
* owning large cars, particularly SUVs (well, not anymore)
...
I agree with SGranny that these are just things, the American dream used to be overcoming obstacles through hard work and enjoying the fruits of your labor...
Curiously, I noticed that these things are pinnacles of fresh immigrants as a measure of achieving their "American Dream". They agree to slave and save for a house and their kids' higher education. I used to work in a widely East Indian-staffed software company with some Chinese sprinkled in, and this Chinese girl was buying a $450,000 - house with her and her husband's $90,000 joint salary (in Mass). It looked crazy to me then (10 years ago), they didn't have any cravings for other "things" - but they saw their house value grew to near $1 mil, and now dropped again.
For me personally (forgive me I'm Canadian) these things don't mean as much anymore as they used to.
- A house built by yourself, the material cost, is anywhere up to $50K. That's what it's value is to me, not extra $100-200K given to the contractors. We are building, with no bank to hurry us up, so we go along as we have money to buy materials.
- College education... Having 2 degrees myself, I do not see the value of them in terms of *happiness* they bring. Especially one pricey private college with $30K tuition a year - gosh, it's all is in books out there! There are too many people with diplomas, they need to scramble for a position just the way the school dropouts did 70 years ago. Tradesmen become fewer and far in between, and their expertise is priced higher and higher all the time.
- The definition of the middle class has become elusive, to the point of "rich" - "working poor" with no degrees in between.
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That's where we're at people.
Origin of " The American Dream"
