Is The American Dream Still Alive?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

[NightWatcher]

1. when reality sucks, there are always dreams

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. Or Maybe Things Get So Bad That Folks Accept Them With Quiet Resignation

~

[damyank913]

3. I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll be at work on the day of my death...

How's that for a dream?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. That Sounds Like A Nightmare

~

[damyank913]

6. I, like so many others, entrusted my retirement to corporate America.

I guess it's my own fault.

[madokie]

21. Me on the other hand wish I could still be working on my day of dying

[damyank913]

24. Your'e right, I guess it could always get worse.

I'm lucky I can still work...:banghead:

[boomerbust]

5. DEAD

[old mark]

7. I have to say it is alive, but very feeble and not there for everyone - but I don't

know how real it ever was for many people anyway - I think it is mythical to many people, just troubling feelings.


mark

[Demeter]

8. The Dream Has Deteriorated to a Fantasy

an unattainable fantasy. If you want the American dream back, try Europe, especially the northern part.

[Uben]

9. It's still alive....

...just harder to attain these days. But still, if one has the drive to succeed, most will. It takes more than just waking up, going to work, and going to bed. It takes extra effort....it always has. Now that good paying manufacturing jobs are all but obsolete, the middle-class has shrunk, and the disparity in wages will keep them down until something is done to relieve that. By something, I mean an effort by businesses and corporations to invest in their employees again, instead of placing all the emphasis on the bottom line and pacifying investors and paying CEOs obscene salaries. Seems all the executives want only to enrich themselves at the expense of those who actually do the work!

[RKP5637]

17. We've moved beyond capitalism now to a pure greed system and the hell with the country, its

future or the citizens in the eyes of many having cornered the wealth of this country. The most baffling aspect is they have gotten many of the most disenfranchised to think the same, but yet they have nothing.

[Fumesucker]

10. Charging... charging... charging.. Clear!

WHAM!

<listens through stethescope>

Charging... charging... charging.. Clear!

WHAM!

<listens through stethescope>

10cc of methadrenaline, stat..

<injects into heart>

<listens through stethescope>

Hopey changey springs eternal in the human breast..

[DailyGrind51]

11. Was it ever? For a fortunate few, maybe.

[quaker bill]

12. To the same extent it ever was

The "rags to riches" thing is still real, extremely rare, but then it always was. There is nothing more effective in behaviorism than rare and random reinforcement. This is why gamboling is addictive and the American Dream still exists, every so often, someone, somewhere wins the jackpot, and it always makes news. Most of us live in hope of being the next big winner. Read "Death of a Salesman" for a serious take or watch the "Honeymooners" for a more comic take on this theme. "Someday my ship will come in", but it never does, and people will apparently put up with alot of BS for year upon year, to preserve the undying hope.

[Echo In Light]

13. George Carlin ~ The American Dream ("it's a big club & you aint in it!")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q&feature=related

[RKP5637]

16. +1,000,000 +++, George Carlin, my favorite person. I miss him. n/t

[optimator]

23. yes... you have to be asleep to believe in a dream

my favorite Carlin.

[baldguy]

14. You work hard, play by the rules & do everything you're supposed to do - and you'll succeed.

It's a heaping, stinking crock of shit.

It's always been a heaping, stinking crock of shit.

[RKP5637]

15. Achieving the American dream (not sure what it is anymore) is difficult/impossible because

the goal posts keep moving farther away as you get closer and older. And once you score, someone comes along and cuts them down and often destroys your achievements through no fault of your own. All you did wrong was to play the game and follow the rules. Now many cheat along the way with neither integrity nor sportsmanship.

[mmonk]

18. More than ever since it is an illusion.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

19. A Shameless Kick

~

[The Old Creak]

20. America

once home of the brave
now we're all just corporate slaves
i've walked so far in these old worn-out shoes
just to get the red, white and blues:patriot:

[Lyric]

22. It never WAS alive for anyone who wasn't white and middle-class.

It was a fantasy and an illusion. The few non-whites and poor people who managed to claw their way up are extraordinarily lucky exceptions to an otherwise dismal and rigid rule.

:(

[NNN0LHI]

25. Yes it is

If you are born into it.

Don

[wildbilln864]

26. yes but like Carlin said....

you have to be asleep to believe it.