What is the American Dream?

[ourlongroad]

I thought it was Liberty, but it seems to have been morphed into Money.

If that's accurate, then how did this happen, why did it happen, and who does it benefit?

 

[asimplegirl]

I don't know when it became this...but that all I can remember it ever being since I was born...for me, it has never been that.

 

[revolutionman]

the american dream is to get up to your eyeballs in debt buying shit you cant afford on credit with an interest rate that will ultimately cause you to pay 2x what the items you purchased would have cost you in cash. You live in a house and a car owned by the bank and you condemn yourself to be a slave to the bank until your debt is paid in full. Typically as many as 30 years of your life. Thats about 45% of your life spent in financial bondage, because it was packaged and sold to you as admirable goals.

 

[Elwar]

I thought it was a happy family with a white picket fence...

I just got a white picket fence installed in my yard, I'm married...now I just need the family and I'll have the American dream.

I'm not sure what comes after that...I'm sure it's nothing but smooth times and bliss.

 

[acptulsa]

Who it benefits is quite obvious. I expect the how and why is to be found, to no small degree, in the history of television in the U.S. And, of course, commercial television has always been brought to us by those who benefit most from this change.

YouTube - Frank Zappa - 02 - I'm the slime

 

[fisharmor]

The American Dream is opportunity.
Liberty breeds opportunity.
Americans don't sit around dreaming about being able to peaceably assemble, or being able to kick the cops with no warrant off their property.
They dream about making a better life for themselves, and having the opportunity to do so.

I'm not altogether sure it has morphed into money. Plenty of people would equate a better life with a bigger TV. But I submit that for most people, the TV is the goal, and the money is only the vehicle for getting that goal accomplished.

The opportunity to go work extra for that TV is the dream. The money is the intermediate step, and the TV is the better life. But I don't think there are many people for whom the money itself is the goal. I don't think many people care about money. I certainly don't, except in that it serves as a medium of exchange. I do X work and I get X amount of goods and services.


Very few people recognize that tinkering with money reduces opportunity, reduces liberty, but
I think the biggest shame of it is that everyone knows what inflation is, and yet nobody stops and asks why it happens. But it's the thing that lessens the benefits of working extra, increases the time you need to work to afford the TV, and then increases the price of the TV.

We know it happens... in fact, if you go talk to a financial opportunity rapist... er... adviser, he's going to tell you that you have to beat 6% return to cover average inflation rates. But nobody realizes that he's telling them they need to gamble if they want to keep their money.

How can we have any dreams with this being the case?

 

[Elwar]

"If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose--because it contains all the others--the fact that they were the people who created the phrase 'to make money.' No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity--to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words 'to make money' hold the essence of human morality."

 

[diggronpaul]

The American Dream is opportunity.
Liberty breeds opportunity

The culture creation industry worked overtime over the last 100 years to change it from Liberty to Money. When I look at cellphones and electronics now, I can't help but relate it to the crap we pawned off onto the American Indians... the more it glittered the more we could usurp from them. Now, we're trading in our liberty for a freaking American Express Gold Card. Lots of advertising and media was required to make all of this happen. We sold out for plastic, ugh!

 

[LibertyEagle]

People seemed to forget that the only reason they had the opportunity to create a better life for themselves, was because they and their ancestors had liberty. Now, as we're being visibly looted, many being understandably freaked out, are solely focused on holding onto their bounty, rather than trying to recover the lost liberty that enabled them to prosper in the first place.

Americans used to understand that everything was based on liberty. But, somewhere along the line, many apparently forgot.

 

[VIDEODROME]

To get run over by a truck and win a big lawsuit.

 

[Dr.3D]

Well, I saw a bumper sticker that said, "The one who dies with the most toys wins!"

Maybe they thought that was the 'American Dream'.

 

[ChaosControl]

A wife, a house with a big red door, a dog, a white picket fence, and 2.3 kids.

 

[phill4paul]

Mine is simply to be left the hell alone. Is that really too much to ask? If I'm not hurting anyone? To be left the hell alone to travel as I choose, to own what firearms I want, to build what I want, to ingest what I want, to grow what I want, to be self sufficient, to actually own the property that is mine instead of leasing it.
If I hurt no one, is that really to much to ask or is it just a pipe-dream instead of an American one?

 

[Andrew-Austin]

You need money and wealth to do the shit you want to do..

I'd like to go sky diving, but I'm not free to do that without some cash.

A wife, a house with a big red door, a dog, a white picket fence, and 2.3 kids.

You need money for all of that.

 

[idiom]

A billion dollars buys a lot of liberty.

 

[LibertyEagle]

mine is simply to be left the hell alone. Is that really too much to ask? If i'm not hurting anyone? To be left the hell alone to travel as i choose, to own what firearms i want, to build what i want, to ingest what i want, to grow what i want, to be self sufficient, to actually own the property that is mine instead of leasing it.
If i hurt no one, is that really to much to ask or is it just a pipe-dream instead of an american one?

This. ^

 

[diggronpaul]

Mine is simply to be left the hell alone. Is that really too much to ask? If I'm not hurting anyone? To be left the hell alone to travel as I choose, to own what firearms I want, to build what I want, to ingest what I want, to grow what I want, to be self sufficient, to actually own the property that is mine instead of leasing it.
If I hurt no one, is that really to much to ask or is it just a pipe-dream instead of an American one?

But then how can you be assimilated into the new global system?

Sorry, being left alone is no longer on the table. This concept must be stricken from all teachings at once!

 

[phill4paul]

But then how can you be assimilated into the new global system?

Sorry, being left alone is no longer on the table. This concept must be stricken from all teachings at once!

You, sir, are the creation created from the burrito I ate before going to bed. Get the hell outta ma dreeeeem!!

 

[MPN]

As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?

Alexis de Tocqueville

Google de Tocqueville if you aren't familiar with his time period.

 

[DirtMcGirt]

to live as long as you can while looking like you are not nearly your age.