So growing up, I had this idea that the American dream was about that if you put in an honest amount of work, you would be rewarded with a good life. This would mean you would be able to take care of yourself and your family, afford a car and a house. In my view, working one job would probably be enough.
Nowadays, I get the idea that the American dream has become about working your ass off in order to have a chance to become a millionaire. Somehow glorifying “the grind” appears to be a part of it too now.
The American dream is essentially trying to tell people that the United States is a meritocratic society. The more work you put in the more you get out. However, I’m sure most of us know this isn’t true. Where you were born and what family you were born into is the primary factor in determining someone’s success. So you grow up hearing stories of “hard working” billionaires and think “I can make it there if I work hard” while ignoring your family who worked their asses off and got nowhere. You see more of the lie of meritocracy as you age. People around you work hard and fail, you might succeed with less effort or fail with more. The idiotic decisions of today’s billionaires solidifies the notion that the American dream never existed and was fabricated to get people to work more for less in the hopes that one day they will make it. In reality, it all comes down to the zip code you were born in.
Check, the American dream of 1-2% is the American nightmare for more then 75%. (And probably just a disappointment for the rest)
As usual, Carlin said it best. “It’s called the American Dream because you gotta be asleep to believe it.”
Glorifying “the grind” is a toxic coping mechanism for dealing with the fact that our grandparents’ generation got what they were promised and pulled up the ladder behind them, leaving the rest of us behind in debt and on fire. People glorify working themselves to death because they cannot bring themselves to accept things like it should not be this way and does not have to be, or you are just as much a victim of the 1% as whoever it is you’ve been taught to look down upon. It’s taking advantage of the psychological need for self-assurance and a vague sense of superiority, but ultimately it’s propaganda to keep the poor in line.
No matter how hard you “grind,” if you are not self-employed you are always making orders of magnitude more money for someone else than you are for yourself. If you are self-employed, it’s still true, but to a lesser degree.
Well said.
Took me a while to recognize the instilled behavior, and even longer to unwind the tendrils and it’s effects on my life in general. Capitalism has instilled a martyr complex into us.
I am a go where the wind blows kind of person and settled on working for myself. Much out of necessity as well, cause a company would absolutely not hire me anymore. I am still “poor”, but I make my own schedule at least. If I’m gonna get fucked, I’d like to choose how.
Reganonomics
Biden is Reagan’s 11th term. But go on believing the gaslighting that the economy is doing well.
Here’s the whole story in a nutshell.
WW2. Government imposes strict wage and price controls and pushes unions. Capital falls in line because they are makign money hand over fist.
Post WW2 the USA keeps a lot of FDR’s New Deal policies in place and everyone is doing great. In 1960, minimum wage was $1.00/hour and the price of the average home was $11,000.00. Unions are strong and college is cheap.
- LBJ decides that the low level fighting in Vietnam has gone on too long. He decides to go for a massive push to knock out the Commies. Turns into a quagmire and he realizes he’s screwed. He didn’t want to raise taxes, so he prints money instead. By 1968 people are starting to notice.
1968, Nixon becomes President. Says he wants peace, but increases the War spending using LBJ’s print money plan. Inflation is now a thing.
1970s Oil Embargo really devastates the economy. Prices skyrocket and inflation is getting worse.
- Reagan elected. Giant tax cuts for the wealthy and cuts for the poor. Homelessness is now a thing.
Before Reagan is elected, Middle Class is defined as one income supporting a family of four. $1 million is a vast fortune.
By the time Bush Sr. leaves office, ‘middle class’ is two incomes, and $1 million is what a rich guy pays for a party.
Further, the prosperity of past generations was in the wake of WWII and destroyed economies around the world. The US was virtually untouched and had a boom-time that is unrealistic under any other circumstances. The US literally started on third base and our parents or grandparents thought they hit a triple.
I didn’t get into it in my nutshell, but Nixon’s Vietnam policy had a bonus. Because we were making so many bombs, the US steel mills couldn’t keep up with the demand from Japan and Germany. they ended up building their own plants, plants that were much more modern and used less energy. When the Oil Boycott hit, the cheap foreign cars were in high demand and Detroit was left scrambling. After the Vietnam War ended, the US had old, worn out infrastructure in the ‘Rust Belt.’
The American dream has been slipping out of reach gradually since the 80s, but people just keep hoping real hard about it; poll done about a year ago shows that close to half of Americans think they’ll be billionaires one day.
Edit: The poll more accurately says nearly half of Americans think it’s possible they’ll be billionaires. Which is, for all practical purposes, no less wrong.
Aka people who don’t realize how much a billion dollars is and what you have to do to get it. That is, have rich parents, to start with.
the dream is well and alive for those in the top 10%. They are the ones who are culturally dominate. All the writers in the media, etc. As well as the doctors, lawyers, business people, etc. They live in a exclusive bubble and they don’t associate with the bottom 90%.
They see the rest of us as just lazy idiots who should have ‘worked harder’ like they did, by having parents that can afford to pay for your housing and education into adulthood.
That explains all the writers for popular TV, movies, and book series who are living in quads eating ramen in the their 30s. The reason there’s massive a doctors shortage is because people with money don’t want to go into a low paying position, and people without money can’t afford to make $30k year during their residency as their student loans go into repayment. The only way to become rich as a doctor now is to patent something, which is not why most people become doctors. Lawyers who make top sums all come from 16ish very expensive schools and are often legacies. And the gold rush of getting into tech companies and then falling into success is almost entirely over. If you’re not born wealthy there are fewer opportunities every day to change that.
