American Dream Reconsidered

The American Dream is an old and venerable ideal. It was first used back in colonial and pioneer days, when homesteading was possible for anyone, and led to greater and faster westward expansion of the nation. We thought it was wonderful; Native Americans and Mexicans didn’t much like the idea.

Regardless of its effect on others, we held fast to the egalitarian movement, and the nation went west in droves to settle, farm, and ranch lands. It made land ownership and stewardship possible for all Americans who wished to go for it.

During recovery from the Great Depression, our president spoke of having “a chicken in every pot.” The American Dream was redefined to mean all Americans had the right to eat every day. And we came close to achieving that, especially with the advent of certain entitlement programs and the manufacturing boost of World War II.

After the war, however, the American Dream was re-redefined. The Gross Domestic Product took over, marketing became puppeteer, and we began to believe that all Americans had equal right to consume. If the GDP was to grow incessantly, it was necessary to be sure there were consumers buying those products. The only way to get people to buy was to convince them they needed the things being manufactured, and companies were producing more and faster than ever before in history. Marketing kept pace.

A chicken in every pot was no longer enough. Now, it became necessary to have a state of the art kitchen for that pot to simmer in, wear designer clothes when eating that chicken, and avoid looking old enough to have killed and plucked your own hen. As the demand for consumers increased, the issue became not whether every American had a chance at the new Dream, but whether we could work hard and long enough every day to achieve it.

We began to embrace this redefined American Dream, and it fogged the image of equal opportunity. We all had the right to pull ourselves up. However, many of us found that we worked harder and longer than ever, and still couldn’t quite keep up with the Dream. Outsourcing to near slave labor in other countries became the norm for production, obliterating jobs; people who actually did very little were able (through marketing) to raise themselves to the status of celebrities and role models, and we were convinced we needed to emulate them and exalt them. They had “made it,” and we took it as proof that anyone can.

Intolerance grew for those unable to achieve the new American Dream. We called them sluggards who wouldn’t work, conveniently forgetting that there were not enough jobs available for all of them and that many of the jobs they could find didn’t pay a living wage. We disdained them so that we didn’t even want to live among them, lest we be mistaken for the same "entitlement” types. We moved to the suburbs and gentrified small neighborhoods in the cities, where those of us who still had a chance at success could live more comfortably. The American Dream was not for every American anymore.

This look at the American Dream is skeletal, I know. However, history is there for us to study at our leisure, so we can fill it in ourselves any time we take the trouble. Perhaps we need to take a look at what “enough” is, as having enough for all of us means some of us will have to do with less than we are accustomed to.

This holiday season, we must provide more food for the Ecumenical Food Pantry, because more people are getting their groceries there. We will need to give more Toys For Tots, as well. Let’s consider that it may not be living the American Dream for there to be so many people below the poverty line. The words “for all”  shouldn’t be forgotten when we think on the matter.