Colin McEnroe Show: Is The American Dream Dead?
More and more, people are looking overseas to find happiness and prosperity.
Here's a quote from an essay titled, "What Has Happened to the American Dream?"
"I believe, we have fallen down badly ...The future will be determined by the young, and there is no more essential task today, it seems to me, than to bring before them once more, in all its brightness, in all its splendor and beauty, the American dream, lest we let it fade, too concerned with ways of earning a living or impressing our neighbors or getting ahead or finding bigger and more potent ways of destroying the world and all that is in it."
The writer: Eleanor Roosevelt. The year, 1961.
Angst about the American Dream is not a new thing. But Roosevelt saw the dream less as a question of economic mobility and more as a question of believing in and safeguarding democracy. Her dream was about the adventure that is American freedom. What's the American Dream to you? Is it still alive and kicking?
Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin.
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E-mail from Bill
Middle class demise accelerated during the Clinton era. Rubenomics and trade liberalization pulled money away from the middle class and sent it to China. Ruben's strong dollar policy accelerated this process by allowing US citizens to purchase cheap stuff at Walmart. The Chinese banking system was too small to handle all of the trillions flowing in, so I came back to the US, keeping interest rates low and pumping up all asset classes( stocks, bonds, real estate).
So Walmart and investment banks benefited the most from this arrangement. Clinton from Arkansas, Walmart from Arkansas, duh. Ruben from Wall St., much money go to Clinton from Wall St.
This increased concentration of wealth leads to financial collapses. Any financial planner says pay down debt and diversify. The US has ran up debt and concentrated wealth.
Our goals to save the American Dream.
1)Bring energy costs to as close to zero as possible. This can only happen by making solar and battery technology better.
2)Start up investment is .02 % of GDP but 17% of economic output. Invest more in start ups.
3)Small business accounts for 60% of new hiring. Of that 60%, 64% of new jobs come from new companies 1-5 years old.
4)The Internet is leveling the playing field and cutting out big business out of the equation. We need to expand a new Artisan economy where people do what they love and utilize the new distribution channels created by the internet.
I could go on for a long time.
E-mail form Jess
I think that the American Dream, means many things to many people, one person might feel that it is becoming rich, where some else might think that it is finding happiness, others might feel that it is being free to do thing that you may be persecuted for in other countries. Some people relate things like richness as only having to do with money, where as someone else might look at richness in having to do with happiness and family. But in our society unfortunately there are those who will try and prey off someones quest for the American Dream, such as bankers, and real estate agents.
E-mail from Dave
Can you ask your guests to comment on the role of the unaccountable Federal Reserve, and its ability to manipulate our money supply in a way that benefits bankers and Wall St bubble-riders, but results in malinvestment in unsustainable economic sectors leading ultimately economic crashes and loss of wealth for the rest of us.
E-mail from Maggie
Interesting discussion today. “Reclaming the American Dream: Opportunity and Prosperity for All” is the theme of a forum on November 10, at 4 p.m. at The Bushnell. The keynote speakers are Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker and Yale Professor and Author Jacob Hacker. A response panel will feature Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra; Peter Hurst, The Community’s Bank; and Dr. Elsa Nunez, President of Eastern Connecticut State University. Stephanie Robinson, President and CEO of The Jamestown Project, will serve as moderator.
The event is being held in recognition of the 100th Anniversary of the Connecticut Association for Human Services (CAHS). We are a statewide advocacy, research and outreach organization.
Maggie
E-mail from Kelly
Please ask Ms. Huffington for other concrete things to do other than moving your money to local banks. I feel like avoiding all large corporations because of their pay inequity and the consolidation of wealth. Since this is unrealistic I am looking for how I can make the greatest impact.
Thank you,
Kelly
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