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Is the American Dream a Delusion?

By Courtney E. Martin, AlterNet. Posted October 3, 2006.


I want to tell my working-class students that the American Dream isn't all it's cracked up to be. But maybe I shouldn't question their belief that hard work will bring success.

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"My uncle came to this country with nothing. Nothing. And now he has a lucrative carpet business and season tickets to the Mets," says one of my students, a wide-eyed, 18-year-old Pakistani immigrant, on a Monday evening in room 605, the light just disappearing behind the Manhattan skyscrapers through the windows.

As a gender studies professor at Hunter College -- one of the most ethnically diverse schools in the nation -- I am used to provoking passionate and often personal reactions in my students. We drift onto some fairly dangerous ground -- abortion, rape, love, war -- but after two and half years of teaching this material I have realized that I am never so uncomfortable as when class discussion turns to the American Dream.

You know the story: Once upon a time there was a hardworking, courageous young man, born in a poor family, who came to America, put in blood, sweat and tears, and eventually found riches and respect. But knowing the statistics on social mobility and the ever-widening gap between rich and poor, I just can't stomach this "happily ever after" scenario. It is too clean. Real life is fully of messy things like racism and the wage gap and child care and nepotism.

The working-class students in my class are often struggling, and sometimes failing, with full-time jobs and full-time academic loads. You might predict that they would welcome the idea that if you're born poor, no matter how hard you work, sometimes success is still outside your grasp.

But semester after semester, student after student, when I suggest that the American Dream might be more fairy tale and less true story, I encounter the opposite reaction. As if by gut survival instinct, students hold up their favorite uncle or a distant cousin, or my personal favorite, Arnold Schwarzenegger, as evidence that the American Dream is alive and well.

Part of me wants to cringe, lecture them about how one success story is dangled in front of a struggling public so they won't get angry enough to revolt against an unfair system. How oppression can so easily be mistaken for personal failure. How many employers won't even look at their resumes if they don't see an Ivy League college at the top. But another part of me wants to keep my white, upper-middle-class mouth shut.

Many of these students' parents -- some of whom have left behind mothers, friends, respect and status in their countries of origin -- have sacrificed their lives on the altar of the American Dream. Some of my students are recent immigrants themselves, so relieved to have made it out of violent and poverty-stricken places like Haiti and Colombia that they aren't ready to criticize the country that is their haven. Others, American as apple pie, are the first to go to college in their families and believe ardently that this guarantees a better life. At what cost do I ask them to question their beliefs? What right do I have to deconstruct one of the foundations they stand on?

Discomfort produces learning; Piaget taught me that. When I ask my students to read about intersexuality, I know that they will be surprised and "weirded out," as they often put it, that sex may be more accurately thought of as a spectrum rather than a binary. This, of course, shatters their previous understanding of male and female, blue and pink, penis and vagina, but I find that they can usually process this exploration with a bit of distanced wonder. It doesn't appear to threaten their sense of self, as much as expand it.


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Courtney E. Martin is a writer and teacher living in Brooklyn. Her book, "Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body," will be published by Simon & Schuster's Free Press in spring 2007. You can read more about her work at www.courtneyemartin.com.

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View:
I give this thread 10-minutes
Posted by: Temporary on Oct 3, 2006 12:35 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Let my guess! This thread will soon be hijacked by the "nativists". It doesent take a genius to realize where the "conversation" will continue from here

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» RE: I give this thread 10-minutes Posted by: Ulfhethner
» Immigrants are generally social conservatives Posted by: karma_ran_over_dogma
delusion
Posted by: rsaxto on Oct 3, 2006 2:19 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The American dream is a delusion for most people because our government is run by delusional criminal elements who suck up to their corporate masters so the masters can get ever richer and the poor can get ever poorer. Every day in every way we move ever closer to fascism until we insist on having free and fair vote counts and then elect a decent government.

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» RE: delusion or reality Posted by: ProgressiveManiac
» RE: delusion or reality Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: delusion or reality Posted by: ALANHESTER
» RE: delusion Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: delusion Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: delusion Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: delusion Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: delusion Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: delusion Posted by: Conservasaurus
» The Lincoln-Douglas Debate Posted by: NoPCZone
» RE: The Lincoln-Douglas Debate Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: AdamG Posted by: Lincoln fan
» Lincoln Fan Posted by: AdamG
» Your BiPartisan 'program' -- Posted by: AdamSelene40
» RE: Your BiPartisan 'program' -- Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: delusion Posted by: docbob
What does it mean...?
Posted by: trashdog on Oct 3, 2006 2:21 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This is yet another matter which boils down to definitions...

I'm sure there are going to be lots of testimonials to the power of the American Dream in the comments, so I'm going to add another to the mix.

My mother came to America in the late '50's from Ireland. Her father dreamed of owning his own hotel in Ireland, but couldn't raise the money for the land. So, he relocated his whole family (despite strong protests from his wife) to America where he intended to be a greyhound breeder. But things didn't work out as planned, and before my grandfather could get a job on a greyhound farm, he had to work on cattle ranches. He was badly injured by a bull, and, not having any insurance or worker's comp, his family lived in a trailer in Texas for over 5 years.

Eventually, they moved to North Carolina where he found work as a breeder. His children grew up and went off to college. His oldest son became a pilot in the air force and eventually a very successful airline captain. My mother is an overqualifed paralegal, and my other uncle has a high-paying job with IBM. He cared for his wife, who had Alzheimer's, alone for almost 10 years. Most people would say this is impressive for a man with only an 8th grade education, and training only in the hospitality industry, but not to him.

It's been over 10 years now, but when my grandmother died, I remember him crying in the car on the way to the funeral. He berated himself for never bringing his family home to Ireland. He said he was a failure... he never made enough money to buy his hotel in Donegal.

He died three years ago, and I'm afraid he never made peace with his American Dream.

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» RE: What does it mean...? Posted by: VannaLaRoche
» RE: What does it mean...? Posted by: harris
The American Dream
Posted by: polyquat50 on Oct 3, 2006 3:38 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...you have to be asleep to believe it.

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Myth
Posted by: Pof on Oct 3, 2006 3:38 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The American Dream died when the first Indian was killed by a settler. i. e. it never existed. If it did, it died again when the first slave arrived in America. etc. etc.

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» RE: Myth Posted by: symcokid
» RE: Myth Posted by: ALANHESTER
The American Dream
Posted by: polyquat50 on Oct 3, 2006 3:38 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...you have to be asleep to believe it.

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Why conservatives usually win
Posted by: Moonray on Oct 3, 2006 5:02 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Liberal ideas -- especially on economic and social equality -- are complex. Conservative ideas -- greed is good -- tend to be more simple.
Guess which ideas usually win on the street.

Liberal politicians are complex. Conservative politicians are simple. Guess who usually wins at the polls.

Most European nations are governed more efficiently than the U.S. because their voters can deal with complex issues better than our voters can. That's the sad reality of it.

Democracy is great, but the American version is increasingly dangerous. Bumper-sticker approaches often lead to unnecessary wars and destructive domestic policies. Just ask George W. Bush.

I much prefer democracy to any other form of government, but how much is too much? If we are serious about being democratic, why don't we abolish the outmoded Electoral College? For that matter, why not do away with political-party-dominated elections and allow people to vote directly for a few candidates selected by a more equitable process?

What we have and always have had is a kind of pseudo-democracy led by a ruling class of the economically powerful. It's just that now that ruling class doesn't even pretend to be ashamed of its privileged position. It revels in it.

I don't know how our experiment in democracy will end, but when voters choose their leaders based on bumper-stickers and 30-second television spots, things don't look good.

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» Take heart in being wrong Posted by: Iconoclast421
» Sorry, I'm not wrong Posted by: Moonray
» RE: Sorry, I'm not wrong Posted by: ezilla
The American "Wet Dream"
Posted by: symcokid on Oct 3, 2006 5:05 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I nearly burst a gut over this one. hey, if you ain't got it, you ain't gonna have it. Perhaps if you and your wife work two or three jobs a piece and don't have any kids, plus ride a donkey to work, you may attain upper lower class status. There is always hope on the horizon to move up however, if you put new siding on your Pad, that will pay for itself in three years and a new energy saver hot water pays itself off in six months. The only way the average dipstick is going to get ahead is to be more crooked than our government and we all know that's next to impossible. Good Luck.

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» American Dream Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: American Dream Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: American Dream Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: American Dream Posted by: symcokid
» RE: The American "Wet Dream" Posted by: ConnecttheDots
Happily Deluded
Posted by: raymondg on Oct 3, 2006 5:29 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
A lot of left-thinking upper-middle class white people often find themselves surprised by how conservative working class people of color are. Most working class people in the US are so heavily invested in the myth of the American Dream that it would be catastophic to disabuse them of it. Why? Because they don't have a counter-narrative to attach themselves to. To be honest, most working class people don't care that by subscribing to the American Dream they are in essence making rich people richer and poor people poorer, because they hope to become a member of the rich who screw over the poor. This is why there is not more outrage in America over the execrable treatment of poor and working people in this country and the world.

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» RE: Happily Deluded Posted by: symphonylee
» RE: Happily Deluded Posted by: Gatsby
Voting the dream
Posted by: YogiBear on Oct 3, 2006 6:11 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Liberals fight to get the people just enough table scraps to get by. If there were no liberals, the people wouldn't even get table scraps, because that's how greedy the wealthy are. But if there were no table scraps there would be out and out revolution. So, in my mind, it is liberals who do just enough to keep the people complacent.

People vote Republican because they're better at selling the dream. When people get tired of the lies, they vote Democrat.

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» RE: Voting the dream Posted by: mrcentrist
» RE: Voting the dream Posted by: YogiBear
» RE: Voting the dream Posted by: mrcentrist
» RE: Voting the dream Posted by: YogiBear
» Yes, I'd say they are Posted by: AdamG
» RE: Yes, I'd say they are Posted by: YogiBear
» Well said brother! Posted by: LeftWright
» Where the hell is bobo? Posted by: AdamG
» bobo is near SF, CA, USA Posted by: LeftWright
» RE: Voting the dream Posted by: ALANHESTER
What's the difference?
Posted by: Lincoln fan on Oct 3, 2006 6:18 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The American Dream hasn't been fulfilled but I believe that it could be. That is, if it's really what we want it's not an impossible dream. But first the majority must decide whether we want our's to be a land of equal opportunity. Whether we want a democracy. Whether we want our government to be controlled by the average citizen.

Do we really want our votes to determine our government's policies? Or is the only difference between liberals and conservatives the amount that they would allow to trickle down?
Bob Reichenbach,
Director, The Lincoln Initiative

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WHICH AMERICAN DREAM?
Posted by: ssegallmd on Oct 3, 2006 6:56 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There appears to be more than one concept called the American dream. Is it the dream *about* America by a foreigner dreaming to escape the chains of poverty and some oppressive class structure elsewhere and come to America for an education or a job? Or is it a dream *of* Americans? And if the latter, which of several is it? Is it the dream to own a home and raise a family on the income of a typical wage earner, or the one about ones kids having it better than themselves.

Perhaps there are other American dreams that I?m forgetting. Oh yeah, that anyone can become president. And that anyone can become independently wealthy. There must be a half dozen more floating around. I think that the American middle class of Ritchie Cunningham?s or Beaver Cleaver?s time is the embodiment of some of the dreams, and the American upper class a la Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous is the embodiment of another whole set of dreams.

Perhaps I?m being picky thinking that someone should be able to define THE American dream unambiguously. And perhaps it?s all of these, that is, there is no American dream per se, just a vague notion of opportunity whether that be social opportunity for the lower classes or economic opportunity.

Also interesting is that, as the author implies, the dream is probably over. America as I knew it is a dream. Maybe that?s the new American dream: a return to normalcy and a restoration of the Constitution and the rule of law rather than evolving into an overt autocracy.

Me? I dream of finding a better home elsewhere. I have worked hard and played by the rules all of my life, and I?ve had enough of the dream*. The playing field is not level and the rules are unfair. I?m an American physician, and I can tell you, virtually ALL of us regret our career choices and the ugly environment that government and business have carved out for us and our patients, one minimally related to health care but ideal for insurers and the suppliers of pharmaceuticals and other medical technology.

Today, the American dream for youth is to make it on American Idol or be drafted into the NBA. For their parents, it?s to hit the lottery. Nice.

*One parting thought from George Carlin (I paraphrase): You know why they call it the American dream? Because you?d have to be f**king asleep to believe it.

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» RE: WHICH AMERICAN DREAM? Posted by: Lincoln fan
WHAT IS A FREE COUNTRY?
Posted by: ssegallmd on Oct 3, 2006 7:02 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Here's a hypothetical question for you political science scholars:

What is a free country? How does one decide whether to include a nation as a part of the free world? I would think that it relates to guaranteed rights and the absence of need for permission to make choices.

If the head of state of some hypothetical country was legally free to abscond with its citizens and do with them as he pleases without any charges or trial - including torture them to their deaths - hypothetically, now, of course, if such citizens and their families also had no rights or legal recourse were they or their loved one spirited off in the night, could you classify such a country and its people as free?

What is the sine qua non of political freedom and how do you know if you have that or not?

------

In an unrelated matter, here's a yuk for you: The self-proclaimed leader of the free world, the US, won't be in the free world if the president gets to sign that legislation into law. And neither will you. You will have no rights with the president. You can make no claim in any court, just beg for mercy on your life, or that the torture be brief and death come quickly

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» RE: WHAT IS A FREE COUNTRY? Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: WHAT IS A FREE COUNTRY? Posted by: symcokid
» FREE MEANS... Posted by: AdamG
It Depends On Where You Live
Posted by: NoPCZone on Oct 3, 2006 7:46 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There are still opportunities in the US, but our country is a far cry from the land of endless opportunity. The concepts of community, equity, the greater good and fairness don't show up very often in daily life for most.

Somewhere along the way the I've got mine attitude and an acute awareness of class have taken hold throughout much of our society. The sense of community, shared sacrifice, and expectation of upward mobility based upon merit have largely been lost.

Large urban areas still offer the best chance for a newly arrived immigrant or American kid raised in poverty to move up. Small towns and the burbs offer little but an eternal trap for those who are not already well connected. Those that have it are looking out for their own and largely couldn't care less about helping others up. Even worse, they resent any public efforts to remedy the causes and effects of poverty.

Whatever your personal feelings are about faith or any particular faith, the Christian tradition teaches a very important and true lesson: you reap what you sow. It applies to nations, communities, families and individuals. Our nation has been sowing a crop of ignorance (lack of education), greed, parochialism, neglect, classism and xenophobia. You can easily figure out what the crop will be.

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It's Time for a NEW American Dream
Posted by: sunnyday on Oct 3, 2006 7:49 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
So, what is the American Dream exactly? The most common version is: work hard, go to school, buy a house then a bigger house and then a yet larger house. Get a car, upgrade to a better one, eventually get a Hummer or one of its ilk. Don't forget the IPOD, the HDTV, the pool, the satellite dish, etc.

Does anybody see what is wrong with this? Hello?!!! The American Dream was deliberately crafted back in the early part of the 20th century to be about consumerism. Its about making as much money as possible and getting as much stuff as possible.
And we're all trained from birth to believe in it. "Success" in this country means money, power, and 'bling'.

How many people have even stopped to consider whether or not this is a good thing? That maybe we need a different dream?
Here's a far better dream for Americans (and the world) to have: follow your dreams, live your passions, do what makes you happy. Live in peace with your neighbors. Spend time with your friends and family. Walk lightly on the earth.

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Truth
Posted by: Johanna Moren on Oct 3, 2006 8:14 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I think you should try telling your students the truth.
America is not the only country as Americans seem to believe, where hard work is rewarded.
That is the myth you all seem to believe in.
Johanna Moren

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» RE: Truth Posted by: yesman
I have a different outlook on the American Dream
Posted by: Trazom on Oct 3, 2006 8:41 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Everyone thus far has discussed upward mobility, whether it mean more $$, higher class, cooler stuff, etc. with reference to the American Dream. How about this:

The American Dream for me starts with first being able to just hold on to what you have.

Ask yourselves this, are you better off now than you were five/six years ago (not considering large perturbations like coming into a great sum of money through inheritance, very large promotion, or winning the lottery)?

I can tell you I am not. The reasons are simple and they are numerous. My wage increases have not kept up with inflation, even though I have a very good paying job. My property taxes have gone up 40%. My healthcare premiums have tripled through my employer, and earlier this year my daughter had a seizure which cost us over $2,000 in expensive MRI and EEG tests (even with insurance). I've had to take out a second mortgage to pay for a new roof, furnace, water heater, and water softener because I spent every cent I had on the downpayment on my home in this ridiculously high priced area of homes in which I live (which is the most affordable area within a 30 mile radius of my job). And that was 5 years ago, the housing prices have doubled since then. I do not go to the movies, buy expensive stuff (I'll never own a plasma HDTV), or even buy music. I watch all the commercials on TV about everyone enjoying their big-screen TVs and cool blackberry phones and I just laugh, because it is all just one big joke.

I've become practically a financial advisor in the past few years just trying to get my monthly payments and interest down as far as I can. My wife tried staying home one year and that was a joke. She's working 20 hours a week now just to help pay the bills, even though by doing so it means putting our youngest daughter in day-care which saps more than half her take-home pay.

Now I need a new car, old one has practically sh$# the bed so there will be another loan. I have no savings, and never will I imagine. I am credit card debt free thankfully, but I'm afraid I cannot avoid it for much longer. I'm teetering on the edge, and inching closer to free-fall. I don't see my situation changing for a very long time with the way things are going, so for me the dream is to just hold on to what I have.

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one thing left out - crookedness
Posted by: ps2987 on Oct 3, 2006 9:09 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I think the author left out one other important reason why hard work does not always pay off - that is, whether or not you are willing to be crooked and greedy. If a person is willing to get into a business that preys on the weak or uninformed, I think he can increase his chances of economic success. But trying to make it by being honest fair with other people makes it more diffficult. And there seems to be an abundance of crookedness in US society.

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The American Dream a lie? Nonsense...
Posted by: Boomerang on Oct 3, 2006 9:53 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
My family lived the American Dream. Not some distant uncle or a cousin, my Grandfather on my father's side grew up on a farm in TN with virtually nothing. He and his parents ran to TN from the Dust Bowl. They had nothing. My Grandfather worked his whole life to try to build a better life not just for himself, but for his kids as well. He used opportunities presented by WWII to go to school and get a degree in engineering. When an alarm system goes off and the system automatically notifies 911, my grandfather invented that.

My grandmother immigrated from Australia during WWII. She got on a train in California and got off in Chicago to marry a man she had only met briefly during the war. They were together for 40 years!

The American Dream isn't about having everything, it's about having a system that allows you to try for everything, and mostly, it's about letting you build something better for your children. My father benefitted from my grandfather's hard work, but he worked hard himself. He couldn't afford to live in the dorms during college, so he slept on the floor in the Chemistry lab and at desks in the libraries. He worked harder than I ever thought was possible to get where he is. Today, he's a neurosurgeon. My mother worked hard her whole life to get through Nursing school. Today, she's a CRNA (retired). They met at the hospital, both divorcees from previous marriages with a child apiece. They built great lives with the help of their parents, and they're helping me get through college.

The American Dream is about so much more than just one person. It's about that person and their children, and their children's children. And what would you prefer? Telling people that they can have anything if they just work for it or telling them that there is no point in working hard, they'll always be held down because they're black/gay/a woman/too short/too tall. I think a lot of the commenters on this need to go back to school and get a Civics lesson about what the American Dream is really about. It's not about having everything. It's about having something better. It's about your children.

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» Exactly!! Posted by: Ayla87
» Nonsense... Posted by: makeadifference
» RE: Nonsense... Posted by: Boomerang
» RE: Nonsense... Posted by: Ayla87
Why dreams?
Posted by: Wish on Oct 3, 2006 9:58 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Like one commenter said it: not dreams, but freedom.
So: why is it all about dreams?? That's like dangling a carrot in front of the people. IF you work hard THEN...
How many people have worked hard and ended up with nothing still?
How many people are working their fingers to the bones, just to try to make ends meet?

Learn and teach that life is more than just making holy bucks. That life is more than work.Learn and teach to get the wealth be distributed more evenly and honestly.
400 american billionairs possessing $ 1250 billion...Do I need to say more??

The US society is so sick. Truly sick.
People shooting schoolkids because they have some 'trouble'...time and time again.
A government as criminal as can be (a bill to APPROVE torture????).
People taking less and less vacationtime, while even already having very few vacationdays compared to...hmmm...let's say...Europe. Not even daring to ENJOY life anymore.


The American Dream?
You mean The American Nightmare...

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American Dream....Congress ....Great Role Models
Posted by: picket on Oct 3, 2006 11:04 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Spend what you do not have!!!! Thanks to our leaders each American family owes $119,000 because of the National Debt of $13.6 trillion.
In addition, as a goal of keeping power, our Government leaders last year inserted into the budget $27.3 billion in pet projects. This is done in secrecy as there is no recorded sponsor. Steal from the public funds and do not get caught that is THEIR American Dream. It helps them to woo the deluded voters.
Why do thousands of Americans stand in line for GOOD Paying Jobs??

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This civilization is rotten to the core...
Posted by: SevenStarHand on Oct 3, 2006 11:35 AM   
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Most people have no idea that the common-denominator math of all the world's currencies forms an endless loop that generates debt faster than we can ever generate the value to pay for it. Those who scoff at this analysis have simply failed to do the math. Consequently, this civilization is verifiably based on purposeful and institutionalized deception, coercion, and exploitation. The time is long overdue to change the human equation and end the root causes of most injustice and suffering.

When the full scope of human civilization is analyzed, it becomes abundantly clear that its pillars are money, religion, and politics. Of the three, money is by far the most important because politics and religion rely on it for existence. All three are great deceptions (strong lies) secretly managed by the Vatican and its secret society cohorts. This fact has been expertly hidden over the last two centuries. Money, religion and politics are Machiavellian deceptions whose common purpose is mass exploitation. Very few people understand that all three are tightly synchronized and interdependent logic traps. Consequently, to continue trying to win at such long-term and highly developed shell (and shill) games is absolute folly. Until we turn away from such obvious delusions, humanity’s great struggles and suffering will never end.

There is no true freedom nor freewill in the presence of such pervasive and institutionalized deception and exploitation. People have struggled for millennia trying to form working societies based on these three great follies. Those efforts always eventually fail because the inherent injustice and deception at the root of these concepts always leads to chaos and destruction. How long must it take before verifiable wisdom is finally valued over such long-term and self-evident folly? How much longer will it take for good people to grow tired of such obvious lies and turn away from deceptive leaders and their deceptions?

Here is Wisdom !!

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The American Dream is just that, a dream
Posted by: AdamG on Oct 3, 2006 12:13 PM   
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Actually it's more a lie than anything.

While America by and large is economically more rewarding then many of the countries these people are leaving, the same mechanisms limiting opportunity for control and power are still in place.

Sure people can work hard and gain the opportunity to buy lots of things. They have virtually no chance to have the opportunity to participate fully in our socioeconomic system. By and large, how are system is operated, is dictated by a handful of people and institutions.

For example, you may be able to work at a business producing something or rendering a service, and you may even be able to be the person running the business. You do not have opportunity setting the parameters on how that business will be run, whether your native or an immigrant. I run a farm raising animals for meat. I can not sell that meat to you unless it goes through a federally inspected slaughterhouse. This dictates that I be a certain scale to make it worth the trip to the slaughterhouse. This then dictates that I sell to stores, rather then directly to the consumer. The grain I buy, though organic, is produced on a rather large scale. My only option is to buy grain produced on a large scale, trying to be "cost efficient", because by and large price is dictated by the market. The farmers who are growing the grain are forced to grow grain on a large scale as they too have to be "cost efficient". The grain is grown in the Midwest, but I'm in California. Energy wise, it'd be better to grow the grain as close to me as possible, but economically it's cheaper to grow it somewhere else. It is rapidly evolving to where it will be cheaper to ship the grains from Brazil and other South American countries. All these paramters are dictated by the market. Sure I can try and move into doing some of these functions myself (owning a slaughterhouse, growing the grain myself, owning trucking lines, owning stores, etc.) by there is only so much a person can do themselves, even with machinery. So then I have to hire people, paying them as little as possible. I have to cut as many corners as possible to be competitive. Farming isn't the only industry like this. This is across the board.

It's the industrial scale of things that contribute to environmental degradation, squandering of precious renewable and non renewable resources, poverty, violence, and mass immigration. What negative costs associated with doing business come at the expense of environmental and social capital.

Sure, we play the game, and we will be rewarded with a prize of any bauble, trinket, and distraction that we desire. But if we want a meaningful existence or to safeguard resources for generations to come, that is not part of the game. If we really want any personal say over our socioeconomic "values", then it is only if we play by the preset rules.

People need to take a hard look and ask themselves do they want a life of luxury or abundance? An economic system based off meeting people's needs, or greed?

It's time to wake up, the dream is really becoming a nightmare.

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American Dream to get Shock Therapy
Posted by: LeftWright on Oct 3, 2006 12:21 PM   
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Soon.

The consumerist version of the American Dream is predicated on infinite expansion, and this is simply not possible. (Fortunately, I realized this at age 11.)

The present incarnation of the U.S. economy is in its final stage. It is one oil or currency shock from collapse. Why do you think we're in Iraq and Afganistan?

SOL does not equal QOL

Standard Of Living does not equal Quality Of Life.

Just ask a millionaire living in a gated community who's been carjacked or deathly afraid of being carjacked, mugged or murdered. Or, ask your neighbor who's so in debt that one missed mortgage payment brings it all down.

Very soon, when the economy collapses, we will have to decide what is really important. And, since we won't have the option of rebuilding our hyper-consuming culture, we will have to build something else. The original inhabitants of North America lived in an environmentally sensitive and sustainable way, we can best honor them by restructuring our economy with these principles in mind.

However, we have some serious political house-cleaning to do first. American democracy has been subverted by the plutocrats which control both the Democratic and Republican parties. I do not believe either can be salvaged.

We must restore the integrity of our electoral process and the primacy of our constitution.

Everything else will flow from that.

Join the national protest on October 5th. Go to www.worldcantwait.net for details.

The truth shall set us free. Love is the only way forward.

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Price of freedom
Posted by: Riisho on Oct 3, 2006 12:26 PM   
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America is freer than a lot of other nations, HOWEVER, there lies the problem. It reminds me of those kid's birthday parties with the pinata at the end. Invariably, there is some kid who scoops up everything, and a lot of stunned kids look at each other and the empty floor. So much freedom allows for those with power to pull the strings at will and get the lion's share. In America, any effort to even the playing field gets easily squashed. We can't even get the basic societal protections, like healthcare and a free education, like most other civilized nations.

The deception is not so much in the dream, but in the definition. And the brilliance of the American ideal is the wholesale acceptance by the population of it's meaning. In other words, the glittery cage is so comfortable, that you can leave the doors open, and people are lining up to come in! Give them just enough so they won't complain...

A conservative "patriot" would now question me and say "So, if it's so bad, why did you come here?" My reply? Opportunities to make a living. Survival. What I gave up? Quality of life. Now I live in an aggressive, competitive, crass, materialistic and unkind society. I die everyday to live.

America has great promise (if it ever grows up...) But changing it's present course is not going to be easy. Too much power and too much money at stake. It probably can't be done without violence. But for as much as people complain, they have it just too good here to move a muscle. We have to wait until things get MUCH WORSE... But, those in power know just how to control us. They will slacken the leash once in a while and let us run. Lower the interest rates, lower gas prices, throw a bone to the dogs. In the mean time, few notice that they haven't had a pay raise in years, and the healthcare premiums keep going up. The water rises ever so slightly...

Freedom is becoming too expensive for me to afford. Just give me affordable healthcare, education for my children and a retirement so that I don't have to end up on a park bench when I am seventy, after working my ass off my entire life.

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» Gimme gimme gimme Posted by: Torgo
» RE: Gimme gimme gimme Posted by: Riisho
Social mobility declining
Posted by: brunowe on Oct 3, 2006 1:02 PM   
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The American Dream is, as some have noted, for one's children to have greater prosperity and/or choice of how to live one's life then the parents had. There was an article in The Economist almost two years ago which suggested that the Dream IS fading.

I've provided the link but I'll provide some passages as a teaser--
"Some researchers claim that social mobility is actually declining. A classic social survey in 1978 found that 23% of adult men who had been born in the bottom fifth of the population (as ranked by social and economic status) had made it into the top fifth. Earl Wysong of Indiana University and two colleagues recently decided to update the study. They compared the incomes of 2,749 father-and-son pairs from 1979 to 1998 and found that few sons had moved up the class ladder. Nearly 70% of the sons in 1998 had remained either at the same level or were doing worse than their fathers in 1979. The biggest increase in mobility had been at the top of society, with affluent sons moving upwards more often than their fathers had. They found that only 10% of the adult men born in the bottom quarter had made it to the top quarter."

and

"There is also growing evidence that America is less socially mobile than many other rich countries. Mr Solon finds that the correlation between the incomes of fathers and sons is higher in the United States than in Germany, Sweden, Finland or Canada. Such cross-national comparisons are rife with problems: different studies use different methods and different definitions of social status. But Americans are clearly mistaken if they believe they live in the world's most mobile society."

The article suggested that we may be approaching levels of socio-economic stratification not seen since the 1880s. The article argues that part of the problem is that are education system is also becoming stratified by class both at the pre-college and college level.

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