The American Dream as We Know it Is Obsolete

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Arun Gupta

The American Dream as We Know it Is Obsolete
Why progressives need to think beyond the mantra of creating a "middle class America."

April 9, 2011 |


In an era of insecurity, we all want security.

We want a decent home to call our own, healthcare to heal us when we are sick or old, education to improve our minds and job prospects, healthy food and clean water to nourish us, income to provide for all our needs and even some affordable luxuries, a career to give us social status and a sense of self-worth, and a pension for our golden years.

These seemingly universal desires define the post-WWII American Dream, and are still the reference point for both left and right. The “Golden Age of American Capitalism” from the mid-1940s to the early 1970s is commonly seen as the triumph of the middle class, a time when the fruits of a robust capitalist economy extended to tens of millions.

But today we are trapped in the fault lines of a violent global economy, and these dreams seem as archaic as waking up at dawn with the grandparents, children and cousins to milk cows, bake pies and plow fields. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/economy/150555/the_american_dream_as_we_know_it_is_obsolete/

[Fearless]

1. Bull. Both are equally as important.

[kickysnana]

2. Even Suzie Orman says there is a new American Dream...

Translated: You save every penny, and live in a hovel, and not become ill, send your kids to a paid apprenticeship. If you do all that you may be able to keep from dying in the gutter.

[Demeter]

3. The American Dream Isn't Dead

But American government, society, and economy have been taken over by the enemies of the People.

[MasonJar]

4. I am sick of capitolism. I'd like a country where humanitarianism is elite.

The countries who are the happiest in the world have this, Norway, Finland, Sweden, etc. Their people are satisfied. They would be embarrassed to put profit over the welfare of the individual. And yet they are prosperous. Their government pays for everything (with their money of course) and what they have left is fun and games.

[CHIMO]

5. Chris Hedges: Obama is a "Poster Child for the Death of the Liberal Class"

The compromise tax-cut deal that President Obama signed into law on Friday has angered many of his supporters. In his new book, Death of the Liberal Class, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Chris Hedges argues that the failure of President Obama to represent the interests of his supporters is just another example of a quickly dying liberal class. In the book, Hedges explains how the five pillars of the liberal class—the press, universities, unions, liberal churches and the Democratic Party—have become corrupt.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/12/20/chris_hedges_obama_is_a_poster
http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2010/dec/video/dnB20101220a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=00:25:50


Nobel Economist Joseph Stiglitz: Assault on Social Spending, Pro-Rich Tax Cuts Turning U.S. into Nation "Of the 1 Percent, by the 1 Percent, for the 1 Percent"
This week Republicans unveiled a budget proposal for 2012 that cuts more than $5.8 trillion in government spending over the next decade. The plan calls for sweeping changes to Medicaid and Medicare, while reducing the top corporate and individual tax rates to 25 percent. We speak to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who addresses the growing class divide taking place in the United States and inequality in a new Vanity Fair article titled "Of the 1, by the 1, for the 1%." Stiglitz is a professor at Columbia University and author of numerous books, most recently Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy. "It’s not just that the people at the top are getting richer," Stiglitz says. "Actually, they’re gaining, and everybody else is decreasing... And right now, we are worse than old Europe."

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/7/nobel_economist_joseph_stiglitz_assault_on
http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2011/april/video/dnB20110407a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=00:11:13

[Skittles]

6. it actually has been for some time

it's just taking a long time for some folk to realize it