Stripping away the distracting BS, this is what it all boils down to. (In my opinion.)

[BrotherIvan]

24. You have captured my feeling exactly

I too bemoan the values that put money above all else. When I was teaching, and I asked students what their interests were, every single future path was about making money. Not what truly interested them, or allowed them to travel, or fulfill their dreams: money. I have relatives who put down my choices for a moral, happier life because with my level of education and previous income, I "should be loaded." We shame the poor and praise the rich and famous. How else could someone like Mitt Romney be thought a "good person" and "smart" but the only reason anyone could give was that he was rich; so he must be.

I see that way of thinking as automatic in even my best friends. Money above all else. Money as the primary, exclusive goal. Money as the measure of happiness. Wealth as the measure of all things. I have to make a conscious effort sometimes to check myself when I think that way. We have no idea what to teach our children about how to be a good person and live a happy, successful life besides money. We used to have a picture of what being a good person was: raising a loving family, helping your neighbors and earning their respect, and having personal integrity because that makes one a complete person. I'm not saying everyone lived up to that standard, but it was my impression that middle class folk, who will likely never move up unless there is some great good luck, found those goals to be reasonable. Now, everyone, no matter the possibility, no matter what it takes to get there, we should all be billionaires or famous courtesans of billionaires or we are worthless human beings. Worth less.

I keep saying it, but I don't know how it's done: we need a new vision of the American Dream. One that shows people that working like a slave at a job you hate to buy more crap you don't need is not the path to pursue. The idea that people can be happy without constant consumption (and it's good for the planet too). That things like education and compassion and creativity make one far, far happier. That's the truth we have lost.