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One would have thought that in roughly 100 years of history, the "American Dream" would have drastically changed. Surely, we have different ideas as a nation of what the ultimate goal for our lives should be, right? On the surface, we really have not changed much at all. If you watch television at all, you will see that many of the car commercials and vacation advertisements will show a nice nuclear family in their nice car living a nice middle-class lifestyle. Rarely do you see advertisements involving people of the extremely poor or extremely rich, with the exception of celebrity appearances for the sake of ethos. Even in commercials for luxury items, the advertisement is normally geared towards giving one the appearance of wealth, but without possessing actual wealth. This is the American Dream of today and of the 1920s, to appear as though you have wealth, and to live a wealthy lifestyle, without necessarily having to be wealthy. The ultimate goal we have set for ourselves is to reach a point where we can have everything we want with as little work as possible. This reminds me of a famous Bill Gates quote, in which he says, "I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job... because he will find an easy way to do it." Ultimately, the American Dream in itself is what perpetuates the stereotype of Americans being lazy, because we are all trying to be the lazy person finding the easy way to achieve our ultimate goal. The American Dream has been and still is the idea of living the life of luxury on a budget.
It seems ironic that we as a society value people who work hard, considering we have our culture based on the idea of making life easier. We have determined our value by how hard we work, and how much money we make. We feel satisfied when we reach a level of monetary gain that we deem acceptable. Taken literally, wealth is simply this, it is the amount of money one gains and how much of it is disposable income. In this definition wealth is based on a number, it is based on interest, budgets, and taxes. However, I would like to propose that the true meaning of wealth is living a life that is acceptable to you personally. You may not be rich, you may not drive a Mercedes, but you are ultimately comfortable with life and optimistic about the future. For me, my definition of wealth is to live in an income bracket where I do not have to worry about supporting myself, or any children, and can focus on helping others through my work. My ultimate goal would be to reach a level of monetary gain where I can start to give some of it to others who need it to get out of worse situations than I have experienced. I recognize the opportunities I have received based solely on how much money my family makes, and so I want to be able to use my opportunities and my privileges to help others. This has been my guide for my career choice and for how I live. Ultimately, wealth for me is about how much I am able to give back.
I think, as a society, we feel bad for people who are in poverty, but at the same time perpetuate that cycle of laziness and do not do anything to help people get out of poverty. On the other side, people see wealth and fulfillment as the ultimate goal in life and congratulate those who claim to have attained it. Sadly, despite all the donations to charity and the efforts done to provide children and families with better access to education, healthcare, and basic necessities. The cycle of poverty continues. No amount of feeling bad has stopped poverty. Poverty continues because children are born into it, and as a result have less access to food and healthcare, causing them to fall behind developmentally, which puts them at a disadvantage in schools. From there, most living wage jobs require a degree, which many children in poverty cannot attain without overcoming great financial and mental obstacles. Thus, more children are born into poverty and the cycle persists. So, this is why my attitude towards wealth and poverty is that those who have attained wealth should also be the ones to help others attain it as well. The effects of poverty can be lessened by having more people sacrifice time and money to ensure that we can all live more comfortably, because if more people live outside of poverty, then more people can work, create new designs, and put their ideas to the test, making the world an easier place to live in for everyone. If one person benefits, we all benefit.
I think your contrast between our national value of hard work and the reality of envying laziness is interesting and correct, though its definitely an oversimplification. also, the concept that wealth is tied with hard work seems sketchy due to the entire premise of investment. also i don't think most living wage jobs require a degree, it is just easier to get one if you have that because of the social expectations. also you're real cheesy in the hopeful ending but i guess thats maybe the optimism that will save our country or at least fix some of the issues
ReplyDeleteYour way of describing the American Dream is far different than mine is, though I still find myself relating to it. The organization of this post I think could have been better, it almost made me blind looking at this many words. Your use of social position as a measure of success, or what people in America really want, is something that I included in my blog post as well. Overall, I kind of agree with your post but it is, as you stated yourself, a little cheesy.
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