Does America Still Dream?

by Rob Argento

A recent poll of over one thousand adults by Xavier University asked: "Is it harder to reach the American Dream than it was for your parents?" The results might surprise some:
Harder   60%
Easier   33%
About the Same 6%

Even though the poll did not define what the American Dream is it is still disappointing that so many find the Dream harder to achieve today than a generation ago.

So, what is -- or what was -- "the American Dream?" Is it just political and religious freedom? Van loads of toys and gadgets? More and more economic opportunity?

Massive government intervention in the US economy during World War II enabled America to emerge for the first time as the world's reigning superpower, with a level of prosperity, freedom and security never before seen in history. US manufacturing was so productive that Americans had good and plenty for themselves and enough left over to export for credit.

During this post-war period Americans worked hard, produced more than they consumed, and saved. They drew on that savings in the hopes that their children would have it better than they themselves did.

So how did we arrive at this point where we now borrow in order to consume more than we produce, leaving our children and grandchildren holding the bill? How did Americans come to betray the traditional values handed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years -- the American work ethic? How did the world get to the "I-Me-Mine" generation that Beatle George Harrison sung about in 1970?

Did Americans become spoiled by easy credit that led them to a lifestyle of consuming more than they produce? And if so, who do you blame: The Federal Reserve? The consumer? Somebody else?

Well, maybe all of the above, and more. It might be instructional to recall the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve, having partook of the forbidden fruit, passed the blame on down to the Serpent. But God expelled all three from Paradise! Today, neo-conservatives blame neo-liberals and neo-liberals look to Obama to save us, but nobody wants to change their own lifestyle from easy consumption to hard work. I don't know anybody today who values labor like previous generations of Americans once did. "You make, I consume," seems to be the 'tude we're all copin'.

So, in the age of global terror, global climate change, global peak oil, and Kissinger's new world order, can America still dream? Yes, if we get back to our traditional roots and values that made us great in the first place. But that will take discipline, character, courage, the cultivation of virtue, and the deglorification of vice. There's no easy way back to Paradise, no short cut to Nirvana, no "frictionless capitalism" as Bill Gates would have it. The path to the American Dream is today as it was sixty years ago: work hard, produce more than you consume, and save for future generations. And if we have to revert to the pro-American trade, industrial and fiscal policies of  the past to enable that to happen, then let's wake up and get on with it. Or the American Dream will remain just that -- a dream.

Now enjoy this clip from Hannity.