The American Dream. Is It Dead?

Suzie Orman summised that the American Dream is dead.  Let's take a look at the facets of this picket fence rapture.  It's a perpetuating cycle so we will catch it a particular point and watch it go around and restart, the spiral of happines you might say.  Graduating from an actual physical college with a degree based on something real and applicable to life, where there is actually an established company that will need someone with said qualification.  Or even if you weren't so fortunate and you had to start at the bottom of the company ladder, but you rolled your sleeves up everyday and every now and then your efforts would be recognised, rewarding you with either a raise or a promotion until you had your name on a parking spot and your own personal assistant.  

Whichever route was taken, sometime along the way you fall happily in love, get married, buy a house and you get to announce that your expecting your first child.  Long term planning ensures a college fund, your parents now invest in your future and your child's future and all seems relatively well.  The least you do is provide for your children the way your parents did and soon you will be in the audience, clapping as they receive their degree on stage. For the worst case scenario, your child would have a strong work ethic and did not fear starting at the bottom and rolling up their sleeves up everyday.  Either way you are happy.

Picket fence, dog, two and a half kids, yearly vacations, worry free retirement fund. All checked off, the American Dream acquired....and scene.  Now let's fast forward to the last 10-15 years. With New York's lovely 50% divorce rate, a rash of socio-economic deterioration, bad political decisions that bled all the way down to how mcuh you can spend on simple toy today, the dream has evolved.  I say evolved because there are those who are benefiting from the new menu of happiness. So let's look and see what we have to chose from.

The divorced set up. Mother rasisng kids with a new boyfriend or husband while dad pays whatever support judgements or agreements.  Dad now going through his 20's again enjoying the various relationships that you will find being offered at 2 am at the club.  This has lead to older parents as the second marriage or relationship sometimes lead to a later pregancy, making it safe to say that they may not be around for the child's graduation. This set up sometimes lead to rebelling children, who may or may not follow the plan you intended for them and go off to get degrees and dipolomas in fields that we just created yeaterday and you can't even pronounce the name. So they jump off the "production belt" and go be their own person and either become a success at it or never to be heard from again (or just nothing to tell friends about).

The multiple long term relationship set up.  Never making the commitment or being heart broken once and fearing the grand step to marriage. We are not accustomed to couples living together who are not married.  Then came the "baby mama".  Children suffer the most in this set up as they will never know what it's like to sit at a dining table with "spot" playing outside in the front yard.  Thus they will never be able to perpetuate the dream for themselves nor to their children.

The leech set up.  I'm sorry if this term seems offensive but let me explain.  If you are wondering why the government is "broke", you may want to look next door.  Single parent with 2 or three or four kids who instead of getting judgements against the multiple fathers because they can't be found, get support for each child in a nice monthly check coming from your taxes that you pay to the government to maintain the country that you live in.  If that parent now wishes to go back to school, there is governemnt funding that will give preference.  If that parent can't afford rent, there are government resources and funding budgeted for just that.  Even better if that parent manages to qualify for disability then there is another check coming in, guess from where.  Now these are all provisions that were made for us, in the event that we ourselves could not support our children, so I am in no way saying the provisions are not fair.  I am, however, referring to those who DELIBERATELY seek out to use the system for these provisions, hence my term. I've witnessed this for myself and seen it combined with another facet.  The Parent never remarries but is in a relationship with another person who is either working or doing the same thing with the governement and on top of that, one or both of them run unregistered businesses of which they don't pay any taxes on.  So they have money coming in from a few angles.  And let me quote that I have heard a mother say "I need more money from the government, so I'm going to have another child".  I'm not making this up and I fear the worst for this new child.

Last we have the struggling family set up.  Married, both working or one working. Not high paying jobs, living in humble to modest settings. The driveby pay check, leaving barely anything to save.  They can't get any assistance from the government because they will be qualified as "making too much money", and I am speaking from both experience and witnessing this decision.  Not being offered college assistance for the same reason and yet almost every year end up OWING taxes becuase the 2 incomes are added and the houshold is considered one unit, interesting isn't it, while the single parent previosuly mentioned gets a check per child.  

So the American Dream is no longer filled with worry free retirement visions and yearly vacations for the entire family, to be passed on the young and their young and so on.  The American Dream is now just a hope that all the bills will be paid this month.  Even the wealthy had to make some downsizing options and I completely sympathise with the fact that they may not be able to provide for their young the way they were provided for by their parents.  At ANY level rich or not, it is horrible when you realise that you have to make financial adjustments that will hamper the quality of life that you intended to offer your children because it means that the Dream is now that much further away and will be harder if not impossible to perpetuate.  The sad thing is, we are not trying to win it back.