Good Berean,,,,,
"The problem is that long ago a segment of America traded the American Vision for the American Dream.
The American Vision is the liberal idea of freedom of the individual balanced with the obligations necessary to extend those freedoms within society, under girded by Republican virtues based on religion and morality. The American Dream is one of materialistic individualism guaranteed by a collectivist statism.
By that definition, the American Dream is being challenged by the American Vision, and about time too!"
Have any thoughts on that comment?
6 comments:
i think this is a really good topic to talk abbout althoe the american dream is over for almost most of the people
Everyday someone in this country goes to bed broke and hungry, everyday someone wins the lottery, the rest of us are perched somewhere between on a seemingly endless ladder.
Home ownership has been the pillar of the dream since the beginning of this country, millions have come for that dream alone. On average home prices rose 100% in seven years, some markets 400% or more, how could the banking industry not foresee a crash?
Americans are currently losing their homes at a astonishing rate of 250,000 homes per month, if this rate continues, all of America will be homeless in five - six years. Of course that could never happen because at least 5% percent of Americans own their homes out right, but with more and more of them taking out reverse mortgages, theirs are gone when they die.
Small business in America has been decimated buy soulless corporations and store chains. See what corporate America has done for us. What I see is that any town of any size has a Mega supermarket, a Walmart, McDonalds, Wendy's, Kentucky fried, and the like. Every major interstate connection has a crowd of competing gas stations and dozens of huge overpriced, nearly empty, (except in season) national hotel chains. So what was the cost for this uniformity called progress?
Drive along any old state highway and you'll see the reminder from the fifties those little cottage court motels falling down in ruins. Then you'll notice their replacements, those roadside motels, which were nothing more than the cottages pressed together, now they are closed or turned into tiny apartments as well. You'll also notice those cozy roadside restaurants, ice cream stands, and independent gas stations, now all empty or turned into strange little homes. So much for living and working in the country...
Yet we are still plowing down forests and using up valuable farm land to create the empty store fronts of the future... So why are these giant corporations not using the old spaces? Because more often than not the cost of remodeling or tearing down the old facilities is too expensive. So the so called planners blindly go along with the creation of future slums. What about those vast cities, could we ever of made these achievements without corporate America? I ask you, are they such great achievements? Every large city has an inner area often called slums, where business has been driven away when the bigger newer, shops malls and stores moved into the outer edges... now with the emphasize on even bigger stores and malls, I am seeing not only empty shops but whole plazas closed down, huge buildings, vast parking lots awaiting the fate of the cozy roadside cottages. Now every town of size is getting it's own Walmart while the downtown areas are slowly losing all local business, empty store fronts are common everywhere in this country. Small business has been turned into a yard sale.
What about the small towns? I remember growing up in small town America, every neighborhood had a small grocery store run by someone's grandparents. These little stores, where people gathered to gossip, were crushed out of existence by supermarkets, using coupons, specials and sales to get you to buy the products of their choice. Now these small stores have returned, in the form of convenience stores, little stores, run by gasoline companies where you can expect to pay double the going rate for most anything, sacrificing cost for speed. Everybody had thought paying Joe's grandmother an extra five cents for a can of corn was outrageous, but they now pay the quickly mart 50 to 75 cents more, without blinking. Thank you corporate America... In modern America, the corporations are putting vast amounts of money into campaign coffers and just like the millionaires, they expect favors and [...]
Ronald,
I am glad you included a link to the original work (if it is not yours that is).
There are many false assumptions in this as in; "how could the banking industry not foresee a crash?" They did, but federal regulators and regulation's dictated by congress forced, yes forced, the banks to make loans to those who could never before qualify for them let alone pay for them. Note, I said federal as in GOVERNMENT.
I did visit the link you supplied and it does seem (I have not had time to read it in it's entirety) to end up in the right direction but I will save my final thought after completion.
Is it being challenged? Or is the dream just changing into something else?
I see it as both being challenged as they are competing.
Being the word 'compete' suggests that a winner be produced there would be inevitable 'change' for some, would you not agree?
I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good. I don't know who you are but definitely you're going to a famous blogger if you are not already ;) Cheers!
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