American Dream Is Now Just That For American Middle-Class — A Dream

[Purveyor]

By Michael Cohen, The Guardian
Sunday, April 27, 2014 9:30 EDT

During the 2012 presidential election, Republican nominee Mitt Romney regularly liked to joke that President Obama wanted the US economy to look “more like Europe”. In the context of modern American politics, few insults are more stinging. To be European is to be somehow effeminate, irresolute and, perhaps worst of all, socialist. It’s the opposite of the “rugged individualism” and “exceptional nature” of the uniquely American experiment in self-government.

But, as a sobering New York Times article last week made clear, America could have a lot to learn by looking to Europe. According to the New York Times, the American middle class – the linchpin of the country’s phenomenal postwar economic growth – can no longer call itself the richest in the world. “While the wealthiest Americans are outpacing many of their global peers,” says the NYT, “across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens of other advanced countries have received considerably larger raises over the last three decades.” America’s poorest citizens lag behind their European counterparts; 35 years ago, the opposite was true.

This was yet one more wake-up call about the reality of America’s continuing economic malaise. Ask Americans if the country is on the right track – 60% say no. Satisfied with the way things are going in America – only 25% say yes. Still think you’re a member of the middle class – only 44% feel so confident. Forty per cent self-identify as lower-class, a 15-point jump since 2008. Among young people, the numbers are even more depressing. Those who place themselves in the lowest tier have doubled in just the past six years.

While a majority of Americans tenaciously continue to hold dear to the American Dream – that long-standing American ideal that if you work hard anything is possible – more and more people are reporting that the opportunity for social advancement feels increasingly out of reach for them and their children. Indeed, it is hard to think of a more disquieting trend in American society than the fact that those in their 20s and 30s are less likely to have a high school diploma than those between the ages of 55 and 64.

more...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/27/american-dream-is-now-just-that-for-american-middle-class-a-dream/

[stopbush]

1. Hey, we're all just a Powerball win away from the American Dream.

What a country!!

The lazy people just need to get off their asses and win the lottery. How hard can that be? People do it every week.

[johnlucas]

2. There never WAS an American Dream. Some rich jackass put out that propoganda in 1931.

An asshole named James Trunslow Adams—who incidentally came from a rich family—wrote some book in 1931 called The Epic of America.
So convenient that a man who never had to worry about where his next meal was coming from could come up with a fantasy like The American Dream™.

Just like people ate up the nonsense about St. Nicholas wearing the red & white colors of Coca-Cola & ate up that whole bullshit from DeBeers about diamonds, they ate this crap up just as well.

Propaganda. Advertising. Marketing.
That's what America seems to be all about.

THERE NEVER WAS AN AMERICAN DREAM.

I Repeat.
THERE NEVER WAS AN AMERICAN DREAM.
THERE NEVER WAS AN AMERICAN DREAM.
THERE NEVER *WAS* AN AMERICAN DREAM.

A rich guy sold the public a bill of goods, that's all.
Propaganda was so good that it became part of the national mythos like those bullshit stories about Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, & the Wild West.

It's time for people in this country to stop buying into that bullshit.
Not to say "The American Dream Is Over" or "They're Destroying The American Dream."
But to say & know that it never existed in the first place.
FOR ANYBODY.

This country works just like every other country at the root.
Might Makes Right.
Whoever has the power gets all the goods.

The poor every now & then put their power together & matched up to the powerful rich.
That's how you got goodies like Social Security & Medicare & Workers' Rights.
Those were concessions the powerful made in order to maintain the REST of their power.
The poor never stay united long enough to finish the job & the rich know that.
They'll wait you out & let you forget & then they'll come back for the things they conceded over time.

Things are just going back to normal.
They're just coming back for their concessions.
You forgot what you fought for & the concessions you got weren't even that much!
Yet they're still coming back for it because you forgot.

The Rich rule because the Poor are divided amongst themselves.
It's easy to pit Poor against Poor.
Call one of the poor "Middle Class" & watch him forget.
He gets a taste of the luxury the rich have in spades & he starts seeing himself apart from the Poor.
"I'm a taxpayer!" he says. Everybody pays taxes of some kind.
He'll fight the Rich Man's battles for him, he's so confused.
Other Poor rob each other, fight each other in the streets, battle & compete over the crumbs left behind.
All they have to do is wait you out. You'll do most of the work for them.

To spice it up, sometimes you'll get propaganda like The Epic of America to have you fantasizing instead of uniting.
To have a chance against this brainwashing, you gotta at least know the fact that The American Dream never existed.
Once you accept that reality, you'll know a better way to navigate around the fantasy.

You can't kill what was never born in the first place.
John Lucas