Has the American Dream Changed?
April 3, 2008 7:00 am Random Thoughts
First of all I should probably admit that when it comes to political stuff I lean more to the conservative side than to anything else. So just yesterday I was driving home from work and was listening to Glenn Beck on the radio and I heard something that really got me thinking. He was playing a clip from John McCain on David Letterman the other night where McCain was talking about the idea that a lot of people are about to lose their homes. He was suggesting over and over that they were losing the American Dream.
WHAT?!
I have to fully agree with Beck on this one, but since when was owning a home the American Dream? You mean to say that all of this ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ stuff comes down to owning a house? I don’t think so!
When I think of the American Dream, I think of being able to do my own thing and make a living if I want to. It means that I have the right and privilege to start my own business and either make it or fail. It means that I have the freedom to try to do what I want to do to provide for my family. Not just own a house!
It’s really sad to me that the American Dream has been degraded to this. In the movie Far and Away the American Dream was to own some land. But not to put a house on it! It was to own some land that you could call your own and then do what you wanted to with it!
To stay on the political topic, I also think it’s sad that so many believe that the American Dream means entitlement. Like as an American I am entitled to get all this free stuff from the government or some junk like that. I don’t want that! I just want the freedom to be able to make it on my own, not get handouts.
So anyway, I think I’ll rarely get political on this blog, but what I heard yesterday really got me thinking. Please believe that the American Dream is more than having a house!
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tags: life, politics, random, USA
I must say I agree with you wholeheartedly on this! Besides the fact that ‘home ownership’ is a silly standard for something as all-embracing as the American Dream, I fear something else coming down the pike. The trend I see is a bunch of people moaning and groaning because they live way beyond their means, then mortgage their homes to buy more! Then they have the nerve to be surprised when they are in danger of losing their homes when bad times hit. I have only lived in rental units, and my taxes may be solicited to fund their foreclosures? Why?
I fear tax increases are where all this griping is headed, and I do not want my money to go to those just because they feel this sense of entitlement. A dream is just that-it is certainly not an entitlement.
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I love America and to after i read this article, i do agree with you. American dreams is not as simple as that. Home ownership? that’s the ultimate dreams? i don’t think so! this is just another political jokes to add with all the rest of it.
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McCain lost his history when saying people were losing the American Dream. It really goes back to the beginnings of the United States where the common man could finally own land. In many other countries, there was a hierarchy and only the rich owned land. The poor put food on the table by working in other people’s fields and rarely ever became owners themselves. The fact that homes were built on that land was originally just a bonus, but over hundreds of years the “American dream” has evolved. It really does have to do with what you are saying–freedom, liberty, etc. That is the true and original American dream.
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I disagree with Valeri. I think that it is worth its weight now matter how much it costs. Being one up on the next guy always has a price tag, but truthfully, its invaluable. Well put, btw.
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I think the “American Dream” used to mean freedom, housing, land, and a family. Of course, not everybody wants the same thing, but I think the idea of even having an “American Dream” has diminished - mostly due to the New Age spoiled little brats, governmental handouts to the undeserving, and all other forms of leeches, sponges,spoiled & pampered brats and coddled prima donnas. Uh, yeah, I have to agree… The American Dream has changed.
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