report after report, statistic after statistic has shown that the likelihood of you rising past the the economic level from where you were born is so incredibly small it's ridiculous.
However, we are lead to believe that with "a little hard work" and that "can do spirit" like Horatio Alger, "anyone can be President!!" so says the morons on the right.
If you are born poor, you might rise above your station only slightly.
If you are born rich, more than likely, you will remain rich (unless of course you are a complete fuck up and have to rely on the old trust fund, which still means you will remain rich)
While I really like Mr. Stieglitz, the concept of the "American Dream" was completely usurped by marketing execs in the post WWII world.
Once upon a time, the "American Dream" meant having the freedom of speech, freedom of movement and freedom to pursue a peaceful life without the oppressiveness of government control. However, that was changed in order to "out do the Soviets". It became, "buy a house, a car, 2.3 kids, a mortgage, debt and buying bullshit you didn't need.
It was right around the time where we were no longer called citizens but then referred to as consumers.
The American Dream was flushed down the toilet of societal homogenization in the belief that the more stuff we have the less likely we will get pissed at the system and over throw it's bullshit.
However, all is not right in Mudville. As the great divide between the have and have nots expands exponentially, the have nots are wondering, "this is not my beautiful wife, this is not my beautiful home, how did I get here?"
And so, we are now witness to, what I like to call, the great Awakening. While we fight partisan grudge matches of stupidity, the rich continue to lie to themselves that they are still in control. When in fact, they are in less control then ever before, but they don't know it yet. While we hate the ball licking tea party morons and while we support the 99%'ers, those two groups, no matter how far apart they are in ideologies, are of the same mold. They are both pissed off. One is supported by corporate glad handers who are trying to herd them like cats the other (the 99%'ers) by the people.
They are what I like to call the "proto-revolts". Not completely coalesced, not completely clear on their missions, not completely defined in their concepts, but each day, they evolve. Some for the better, some for the worse.
All the while, the rich try their best to keep them off balance for two reasons: 1) out of fear that the message they want to control will be lost 2) the people will wake up from their media induced daze and actually take stock of reality.
The belief and rush to support Citizens United will eventually be the ultimate undoing of not only the rich but of this nation as a whole. It is those in power, as always in history, that believe they will always be in power.
In the end they will be replace by other rich, perhaps a more intellectually insightful and less narrow minded rich.
And the playing field will be less slanted toward the have mores. Notice that I didn't say that it will be level. The concept of a level playing field will last all but a few minutes until the vacuum is filled by a new round of new rich.
Maybe, just maybe then we will return to what the original concept of what the "American Dream" actually stood for.
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