The American Dream as We Know it Is Obsolete

[upstatecajun]

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.

http://www.tloforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=91

[OHdem10]

1. Thanks to Conservative Economic Fundamentalism and

a Democratic Party not willing to fight it.
Instead they parrot the "Free Market Principles"
and throw their own under the bus.

Welcome to Right Wing America.

[LiberalEsto]

2. Yes it is

and I'm obsolete too.

Former newspaper reporter and marketing writer, out of work two and a half years, 59 years old, female, no money for retraining, arthritic ankles and knees, unemployable in this job market.

Thank Goddess my husband has a job, but after working long hours all week, he is putting in a 13.5 hour work day today and a 12 hour work day tomorrow. Monday he has to be at his desk at 7 a.m when his regular work week starts again. And he does not get one penny of pay for the extra hours. I worry that he may keel over from the excessive work and stress.

[Mulhane]

6. Keep working or save body?

Also 59, college grad,non-smoker, non-drinker, and starting to experience why retirement was originally 55. Most men worked at factory, mine, RR, farm,etc., and the body can only take so much repetitive abuse. I am feeling the effects of arthritis in hands, knees,low back and hip. Already had one hernia operation. If I were 62 already, I'd take early SS and go to Belize or someplace cheap, hot, and easy on the bones. Thanks to inadequate health coverage, my savings have been whittled down to less than 10,000 and about to get bashed again by an out-of-pocket root canal. I live in a boarding house where most of the guys are vets and live on pension and disability. Anyone know where I could survive 3 years on 10,000? Some days I'm on the verge of chucking my job and heading to the border just to save my body for the better years. Hah! I guess that is for embezzlers.

[RickFromMN]

3. What would the American Dream be like if FDR's Second Bill of Rights had been enacted?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Bill_of_Rights

[Mnemosyne]

8. That would have been wonderful, Rick.

It would have been a country based on lifting each other up; rather than tearing each other apart.

Employment, with a living wage,
Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies,
Housing,
Medical care,
Education
Social security

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Bill_of_Rights


Welcome to DU! Mad world, eh?

[realFedUp]

4. but we aren't and neither are protests

Recall, vote, protest, write, call, e-mail, show up, support
the orgs that are doing the good work.
Show up with your money, if you still have some.
Support the pols who actually do what they say they will
Vote out those who are just taking up valuable seats
Speak out when people are wrong
Educate, inform, correct the lies, loudly and simply

[SoCalDem]

5. It was all a post-world war mirage..that lasted a couple of generations & a smidge

the time before and after will be pretty much the way the world ran before, with the super rich in charge & everyone else scrambling to keep food in the belly & a roof over the head..

It would have been a shorter-lived blip, but for the introduction of the EZ-Credit for the masses. Plastic covered for the chipping away of the infrastructure that was the base. People tend to be optimistic, and while acquiring things on credit, and feeling more affluent, they fell into the trap as their optimism got crushed by job loss, high interest payments and generally things not working out as planned..

The only ones who got the full measure, were the parents of boomers, many of whom got the new deal when it was fresh & they were young & energetic, the ones who went through the "big war", came out the other side with all the government goodies, and then when they started to age, the Great Society was there as their old age safety net/ Many/most of them are gone now, but they had a good ride...and we younger ones (the boomers) paid for it all..for our whole lives..

[Mulhane]

7. And the ones who are left

...mostly want to deny even a semblance of these bennies for all the kids they produced.

[SoCalDem]

9. It was all done with borrowed money.. If younger ones want it, they will borrow too

Once we lost our manufacturing base & the good jobs that went with it, we have been "eating the seed corn".

All the bazillions of dollars pumped into the economy by the taxes of the Boomers were not used wisely.. Congress after congress gobbled it up and slathered it all over themselves & their buddies..

As long as we were all working,. paying & using plastic, those plates kept spinning, but money can only be spent once & then it;s gone, and now we are entering the retirement phase and all that extra money we prepaid for ourselves while we were "bonusing" up Granny & Gramps' retirements, well..it's all been spent..

The 30 year span from 1950-1980 was about the best it was financially, and it will not return anytime soon, for a lot of reasons.. it was a blip..

an oddity

Life will go back to the way it was before, and we will all have to adapt..

Countries here and there will experience their own "blip", but eventually theirs will falter too..

[taught_me_patience]

10. I just don't buy it

The middle class is alive and well for millions of SoCal people and people across the nation. America is STILL the place that immigrants want to come to make a living. The american dream is a bit harder than it used to be, but is far from dead.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. You mean there isn't really a Happy Land?

Where dad carries a briefcase and mom does the cooking and the kids are named Duff and Muffin? Where only white people live..except for the nice negro maid and funny Mexican gardener?

[RagAss]

12. Greed always wins....until the down-trodden see themselves as already dead........

Then the shit starts to fly !
Then you have change.

[StarburstClock]

13. Correct. They're coming to get what remains of it too

It'll be called "austerity measures".

[tilsammans]

14. Seems like so little to ask for, isn't it? n/t