Chances of you being well-off are, at best, one in twenty; of being wealthy, one in a hundred. Yet nearly half of us think we will be.
That's what keeps those hamster wheels spinning.

What an overwhelming buzzkill you are masbury.

Americans need to be disabused of the notion that anyone can grow up to be anything they want in modern day America; at least so long as the Republican upper echelon has control of the banks and high finance.

The American Dream is alive and well... if you're asleep.

lol....from buzzkill....to sweet dreams- that's a gamut- i dunno 'bout all that- i am just hoping that we have seen the end of joe the plumber tho-good grief....people like that joe guy scare the heck out of us doodles

Oh the American Dream should be alive an well, as long as it is not based on false assumptions, stepping on your fellow man and standing up for what you believe. In fact last Nov. 4th it came back more alive than ever.

I would like to make it clear that stading up for what you believe is part of the American dream.

more than that:

the american dream is to be wealthy, overnight. as if by magic. win the lottery, hit it big in the market, invent something that sells a trillion the first year. the idea of slogging along for 30 years grinding your way to the upper end of the middle class; that's entirely unamerican these days. and even to suggest it makes you unamerican.

The suggestion that it's 'easy' to get rich, also implies that it's just as easy, not to be poor. So the poor get blamed for their own plight or for being lazy etc.

The "getting rich" part of the dream is so untrue in so many ways. Nearly half of America is functionally illiterate. Half - obviously - of high school grads scored at the 50th percentile or below on standardized tests.

Poor people pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than rich people do. The income difference between rich and poor is the greatest in the Western world - and greater now than at most times in US history - and growing. Healthcare is terrific - for that shrinking number who can pay for it. College is excellent - for that shrinking number who can pay for it.

Against many, the deck is stacked, one way or another, and the Bush/Reagan outlook has made social mobility far more difficult.

Thanks for the reality pill, Masbury.
/e

Re: The American Dream. Fuck Horatio Alger & his books!

THAT version of the American Dream has been a crock of shit since day one, but a whole lot of Americans still believe it applies to them.