The Modern American Dream: May it Rest in Peace!

One of the greatest shortcomings of being human is our sense of perspective. In life this means that we often falsely believe that the way we experience life is the way life has always been experienced. A prime example of this is the current version of what is called the American dream. As a recent U.S. News & World Report article explains, this version is "a series of unofficial tenets: A good education guarantees a good job, hard work will bring prosperity, and 40 years of 40-hours-a-week work earns a comfortable retirement." For those of us born post-World War II this has been the dream that we have come to expect. That by getting a decent education, usually in the form of a degree, and being a dedicated faithful worker for the next 40 years our employer and in the government would provide for us in our later years. In other words, as the article puts it, workers began to "believe that somebody owes them a comfortable life just because they try hard."

Unfortunately, for those who believe in this version of the American dream, its death bell is ringing and has been ringing for over 30 years. As I highlight in my book Believers & Doubters it started with the ERISA Act of 1974, which established our current 401(k) plans. This effectively wiped out the then common pension plans that provided employees with fixed retirement income until death. Since then the bell has steadily been tolling as globalization and economic realities marked the slow death of this modern version of the American dream. Hospice care in the form of the government providing what business is no longer able or willing to provide has kept this dream on life support. But now in the current financial and economic crises this dream is effectively dead.

I know that pronouncing the death of the American dream is disturbing to anyone who cares not only about their own future but also the future of their children and the country. But I do not believe that we should be saddened or lament in the passing of this version of the American dream. First of all, it was never financially viable and from the beginning was doomed to collapse under its own weight. Secondly, it never was the real version of the American dream since it traded freedom for security, independence for safety. This was never the objective of the American dream, which emphasizes freedom and independence. The idea of being shackled to an employer by the chains of a salary and benefits is completely contrary to the principles of the American dream.

To truly understand this it is necessary to step out on our own experiences and to examine those of pre-World War II generations. We all know that the United States has been the destination of immigrants since before it became a nation. But what brought those desperate people to our shores? Was it because they desired to exchange an aristocratic master for a capitalist one? Clearly job security was not the objective for these people. Just imagine what it took these immigrants to leave home at a time when it was not uncommon for the average person to pass his life without ever setting foot outside of his village or township. They had to travel to a port and then spend up to two months on a perilous ocean voyage. Even arrival at the embarkation ports did not provide safety and security. Once off the ships most did not know where their next meal was coming from much less what the next day would bring. More often then not they arrived with little on their backs and less in their pockets. What they did have was a vision of the American dream that thousands of immigrants still have to this day but that we, as Americans, have long forgotten.

Of course immigrants from distant shores weren't the only people searching to live the American dream. Even as the Industrial Revolution was transforming the great Eastern cities into the manufacturing centers they were to become thousands upon thousands of Americans decided to risk life and limb to go west. They hitched up their horses and covered their wagons to head into the unknown frontier territories. On the journey they had to overcome imposing natural barriers such as the Appalachian Mountains, the Mississippi river, and the Great Plains of the Midwest, which was nothing but a “sea of desert.” This migration of "restless spirit" continued through World War II as thousands displaced by the Great Depression sought opportunity in California's growing defense industry. (This last migration marks the start of the twisting of the American dream as the experiences of the Great Depression led more and more people to look to others for safety and security.)

This demonstrates that the American dream was never about security or safety. The goal of these people, whether they be immigrants from around the world or pioneers that won the West, was the desire not to be cared for by a new master but to be the master of themselves. They rejected the idea of seeking safety and security if it cost them their independence and their freedom. I believe they would look upon what we now call the American dream as little more than servitude. They would be ashamed of the timid fearful people we have become; people content to surrender all their hopes, dreams, and ambitions for perceived security.

At this time in history we have two choices. The first is to continue to seek safety and security at the expense of our freedom and independence. The second is to go back and look at what our forefathers did. To learn the principles that guided them and made them and our country the greatest in the world! It is our choice to make. Will we be the generation that revives the real American dream or the generation that sacrifices it in hopes of keeping alive a version that falsely promises security?

If you personally decide that the American dream is worth preserving and keeping then I recommend my book Believers & Doubters. The principles and philosophies in the book are the same ones that have guided independent-minded Americans for generations.