The real American Dream

Much has been said and written about the ideal, if not myth, of the “American Dream,” and if we truly look at what goes into it these days, we can see in it the seeds of our future decline and the present demise of our economy. For the past years, our genuine dream has been to be able to consume literally “until we drop,” drive dumb, big SUV and live well over our means on credit. By creating a 24/7 shopping society, we’ve told our manufacturers to go and produce their goods cheaply and in huge quantities in the developing world, debasing in the process our entire manufacturing infrastructure, we have funded some of our worst enemies by importing more inexpensive oil and making sure that it wouldn’t be taxed (like it is in the rest of the developed world) and our financial system has elevated credit to becoming the new “opium of the people.” All this has taken place with our government’s blessing, as while we where busy “buying stuff,” we wouldn’t even question their lackadaisical policies and the prosecution of a useless war in Iraq. Unbeknown to most of us, we’ve just been accomplices of an incompetent congress and a vicious administration by listening to Madison Avenue and splurging on objects that were supposed to make us happy. Today, as this most celebrated dream is turning into a nightmare of epic proportions, don’t count on government to fix the mess. Instead, the buck stops with us, the people. It’s about time that we took the time and looked at ourselves in the mirror and finally asked: “What were we thinking?”