'The American Dream For the Average Man Doesn't Exist Any More'

Although your average Wall Street "expert" thinks it's only a matter of time before things return to normal (whatever that is), anybody with half a brain who has been paying even the slightest bit of attention can see that the game has changed.

In fact, all you have to do is sample a few of the conversations and ruminations swirling around us in today's post-financial-crisis world to know that the good old days aren't coming back anytime soon -- if ever.

In "American Dream Faces Harsh New Reality, " KUNC (Community Radio of Northern Colorado) we get a sense of just how much perspectives have changed -- and are changing -- in a country that has long been seen as the land of opportunity and the leader of the free world.

The American Dream is a crucial thread in this country's tapestry, woven through politics, music and culture.

Though the phrase has different meanings to different people, it suggests an underlying belief that hard work pays off and that the next generation will have a better life than the previous generation.

But three years after the worst recession in almost a century, the American Dream now feels in jeopardy to many.

The town of Lorain, Ohio, used to embody this dream. It was a place where you could get a good job, raise a family and comfortably retire.

"Now you can see what it is. Nothing," says John Beribak. "The shipyards are gone, the Ford plant is gone, the steel plant is gone." His voice cracks as he describes the town he's lived in his whole life.

"I mean, I grew up across the street from the steel plant when there was 15,000 people working there," he says. "My dad worked there. I worked there when I got out of the Air Force. It's just sad."

Uniquely American

The American Dream is an implicit contract that says if you play by the rules, you'll move ahead. It's a faith that is almost unique to this country, says Michael Dimock of the Pew Research Center.

"When Germans or French are asked the same questions about whether it's within all of our power to get ahead, or whether our success is really determined by forces outside our control, most German and French respondents say, 'No, success is really beyond our control,' " Dimock says.

In the wake of the recession, that sentiment is now growing in this country.

"I think the American Dream for the average man doesn't exist any more," retiree Linden Strandberg says on a recent visit to the Smithsonian American History museum in Washington, D.C.

To listen to the associated broadcast report, click on the play button below:

To read the rest of the story, click here.

Comments

[roger]

The American dream; I have never really understood this concept is it,buying a new car every year,trading up a new house every 5 years, or borrowing ad infitum to make ends meet,wealth and happiness judged by how much you can consume,perhaps this folly can be summed up by the belief of the golden age,what a bunch of BULL! In Europe this is called very appropriately the 3rd. age.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.(Von Goethe.

[Anon]

This post explains your last post.

Don't forget that.

[Tom]

Not only is the so-called American dream over, we'll be lucky as a species to make it to the next century! We're witnessing a collapse of civilization and NO ONE is "safe" or "secure" because it isn't about money or wealth any more. We face a world in which nuclear radiation is growing at an alarming rate (but you won't hear it from the mainstream media, to avoid panic and having to do costly repairs or even more costly system shut-downs). Add to that the environmental damage we've wrought to the biosphere (oceans, land, air, species extinction and now climate change and sea level rise) which will most certainly result in the inability to grow enough food for everyone. Our aquifers are drying up and being ruined by fracking, so clean drinking water will become scarce before long too. On top of that we have new diseases (just today i heard about chagas - spread by mosquitos - which some call the new AIDS of the Americas; see http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/science/spread-of-chagas-is-called-the-new-aids-of-the-americas.html?_r=3) to contend with, like Dengue Fever, Rift Valley Fever, many types of encephalitis and West Nile Virus - almost all of them FATAL. We have acidifying oceans (and dead zones), dying coral reefs, overfishing, beaching of mammals and fish due to sonar, poisoned habitat (like the Gulf of Mexico now) which is severely impacting edicble fish stocks. On land we have the collapse of bee colonies due to pesticides, white-nose syndrome killing off bats (that eat mosquitos) and other problems affecting pollinators. Earthquakes (many, like the ones in Northern Italy and elsewhere caused by fracking operations), volcanoes and damaging storms will be getting worse as we go on. There are many other pressing issues, but i think this is a good start.

Waaaaayyyy down the list of worries and problems is the current global financial crisis - which itself will lead to big problems for humanity. Welcome to the bottleneck. Those who survive may wish they didn't.