The American Dream Is Gone

[Matt1970]

Dude where have you've been?

Those countries and a lot more are laughing at the U.S.

Where does the U.S. rank in Education, Science, Math etc?

Something like around 20th and dropping by the day.

Having your head in the sand does you no favors.

They can laugh all they want. We have a few states that are larger economies than those countries. We produce companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, Intel, Amd, GE, etc... etc..... all while ranked 20th in whatever. They produce crap. Except the slapper, or the chopper or whatever it was called, everyone knows the Germans make good stuff.

 

[woodie1]

The American Dream died when it stopped being a dream attainable through years of hard work and sacrifice, and started being something people felt they were simply owed.

Very well put.

It seems we working fools are expected to pay through our taxes for any and everything this entitlement class could possibly want. What a terrible job we did raising our kids.

 

[Exterous]

this is no news, everybody knows that the US is more similar to a developing country like Brazil than to the rich parts of Europe. Ghettos and stuff.
On the page "gated communities" of wikipedia you can find this list of countries who have a meaningful quantity of gated communities:

Basically: anglosaxons confirmed for third world.

A lot of the US considers 'Gated Communities' as a status symbol - not a need. They aren't like the ones I've seen in other countries with walls high enough you'd need a ladder and wire cutters to get through the barbed wire on top running the entire way around the compound. A lot of them have a gate and a 4' high wall that stretches for 8' on either side of the entrance leading to the large 50+ house subdivision and thats it. There are plenty of places in the affluent areas nearby that have them even though there is absolutely no security/safety reason for them. The gate is the new 'white picket fence'

Hurp, you've never been on 4chan evidently. There's a bunch of 20yo unemployable/uneducated united statians who have dreams of moving to Germany or Scandinavia to live off welfare. No one talks about moving to France though.

And you are welcome to them. A chosen lifestyle of living off of welfare is not what I would consider the American dream but it may be getting to that point...

 

[MovingTarget]

The American Dream died when it stopped being a dream attainable through years of hard work and sacrifice, and started being something people felt they were simply owed.

If you put in years of hard work and sacrifice, you are owed! That's why the dream is dead/dying. There is no longer a strong positive correlation between hard work/sacrifice/loyalty and success. It now only applies to an investor class and not the rest of us schmucks.

 

[Paul98]

Saying "Gone" is over the top, as many people are clearly still able to achieve it. So instead of talking about the problem, you have people who will simply look at the exact word you use and argue against that. Instead of what you are talking about.

But with the people running this country, the vast amount of stupid and brainwashed people, it's just going to get worse.

 

[1prophet]

If you put in years of hard work and sacrifice, you are owed! That's why the dream is dead/dying. There is no longer a strong positive correlation between hard work/sacrifice/loyalty and success. It now only applies to an investor class and not the rest of us schmucks.

It's hard work too, when you have to repackage questionable mortgages as high yield securities, or sell other peoples stock without them knowing and call it naked short selling instead of fraud,

this and many more from the hard working, always sacrificing, Wall street folk who represent the new American Dream where it's not enough just to win unless everyone else also loses.

 

[Icepick]

I don't see the American dream as gone, I see the sanity of the American voter as gone.

In Iowa, for example, the unemployment rate is well below the national average.
You might start hearing that a lot in the coming days as the election heats up.
Iowa being one of the swing states and all...

But people should know the reason why this is, is simply because most of the last three true American based employment opportunities are located in Iowa.
1. Banking...
2. Insurance...
3. Health... (Blue Cross/Wellmark)

This is my challenge for Mitt Romney...

Can president Romney with his republican congress figure out ways to move those last few unique American based jobs off to foreign lands?
You betcha they can....! Given the chance.
After all, that was Mitt Romney's job. That is what he does.
That is exactly how our possible future president made himself, and his investors, very very wealthy.

So here we have the last three remaining, true employment opportunities unique to America.

I give them two years under a Mitt Romney/republican congress.
After all... Romney has already said, and said often, that as president "he" would have let the US car industry go bankrupt.
Yep! Two years at best, and gone!

So again I wonder, and ask, why do so many of our voting public insist on electing traitors into the highest office in the land? The job killers. Nixon, Bush, and possibly Romney (just to name a few).
Why?
I'd really like to know....

Because the majority of Republican voters do not vote the economy. They are more focused on simple topics that are easier for them to understand: God, Guns, Gays. Throw in a pinch of racism and there's the reason Republicans are able to derive strength from their "grass roots." Actually, the racism card will play more into their favor since we have a non-white president who is whipping many racists into a fervor "anyone but Obama."

 

[blankslate]

Gone? No but steadily becoming harder to achieve.

Other countries are catching up or surpassing America in terms of economic mobility or the ability of the citizen to rise above the economic class they were born into.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/u...-to-rise-from-lower-rungs.html?pagewanted=all

But many researchers have reached a conclusion that turns conventional wisdom on its head: Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe. The mobility gap has been widely discussed in academic circles, but a sour season of mass unemployment and street protests has moved the discussion toward center stage.

Of course instead of solving the situation that contributes to this problem America will just bicker and try to assign blame. "Divide and conquer" it's working.

 

[dmcowen674]

6-12-2012

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/dail...shrinks-avg-net-worth-falls-40-160150749.html

The American Dream Shrinks: Avg. Net Worth Falls 40% From 2007-2010