It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it
George Carlin’s bit from the 2005 HBO special “Life is Worth Losing.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-54c0IdxZWc
20 years ago…
His later material is still relevant
The 1% deliberately changed the meaning of the American Dream. For decades, the American Dream was to be solidly, securely middle class. A house, a car, recreation, and enough security that your kids will have it a little better than you do.
Through popular culture, that changed. Now, the dream is to be a billionaire. The ruling elite have moved the goalposts. With the American Dream permanently out of reach, the peons accept working poverty, and blame themselves for not being rich.
The American Dream was always a lie that was never meant to actually last, only to entice the population to tie their interests with that of business in the systemic breakdown of community.
“You don’t need community! You can be an independent family that survives only by the sweat of your own brow! We (owning class businesses) will ‘provide’ all you need! Just work for us to make money so you can buy back the very things that you and your community labor to produce in the first place! Pay no mind to the fact the system fundamentally requires constant inflation of prices plus the suppression of wages in order to raise profit margins year-over-year so we keep the investors (the owning-class, again) happy!”
Hey you should clean this blade or the patient you use it on could catch Tetanus and it’s not safe!
That’s not very nice to tetanus.
American dream, lol. The first paragraph phrases it better:
the lid of the coffin in which the “American Dream” was long ago laid to rest has finally been sealed shut.
But I’d still argue that the American Dream has always been just a dream. A cynical dream. It always required ignoring the 999 others who didn’t make it, most of them in abject poverty. In other words “climbing over dead bodies to get to the top”.
Or:
U.S. social mobility, which never did measure up to its mythic renderings.
The American Dream excluded blacks, natives, and women from the beginning
Which is why the whites racists want it back. Basically MAGA in a nutshell.
Financially obese individuals are ruining it to everyone.
It only existed if you were a white male WW2 soldier that got the GI bill and an education in the late 40s/early 50s. When wealthy people actually got taxed appropriately as well as CEOs that didn’t make 100x more than their employees. There were loopholes of course but they involved billionaires having to actually do something with their money to benefit society like building libraries.
The morbidly rich have killed, or seriously wounded America. Not suie which yet but either way things are really not looking good for us right now. We need radical change to turn things around.
Dreams for thee, not for me. Wealth is a carrot for the poor and uninformed to chase. In the end, only those who cheat or take advantage of others, win.
Wasnt the same american dream present during the great depression? So nothing has changed.
Not really. They are living the American dream. They made it real.
