The Decline and Fall of the American Dream

I suppose you'll have to forgive me for waxing philosophical (which isn't necessarily under my purview as a Financier and Economist - though I also have a degree (well, a minor) in Philosophy), but there's something that I've just now come to realize that's almost beyond disturbing to me. Unlike my normal, data-centric posts, this one is an opinion piece, but one that I beg you to read.

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Home Ownership's Recent, Twisted Introduction to the Concept of the American Dream

The idea of the American Dream can be traced back to an autobiography written by a fellow Philadelphian, Ben Franklin, who documented his rise from "poverty and obscurity into which [he] was born and bred to a state of affluence." The story tells of how Mr. Franklin effected his meteoric rise to fame and fortune through hard work, stubborn perseverance, inventiveness and God-given talent (which you and I may or may not have). Horatio Alger wrote countless books on the topic, and the ideal still rings true in the ranks of a good portion of the 3,000,000 millionaires alive in America today.

The American Dream, by the very two words which make up the phrase, is above all an ideal that should sit at the very core of what it means to be American. It is supposed to represent all of our hopes and dreams rolled up into one - the sparkling flagship of noble ideas in a land of limitless opportunity. Instead, the mighty American Dream, the powerful force that roused my grandmother and millions of others to leave their homes behind in search of better lives, is now synonymous in the mainstream psyche with the purchase of a single material good.

In a sign of the times, this once-sacred ideal has been twisted by the titans of industry into a mere slogan, its beautiful melody perverted into a siren song, relentlessly luring unsuspecting passersby into its grasp. The promise of prosperity and a better life has been cruelly twisted by the forces of unfettered consumerism and the dire certainty of debt.

The ultimate concept has been displaced by the ultimate asset. The permanent and sublime has been replaced by the transient and tangible. What's more, I didn't even realize that it had happened until today. To those in the real estate industry who managed to pull off this masterfully insidious feat, I can only tip my hat to one of the greatest marketing movements in recorded history. The very idea of the American Dream has been turned against us.

This, folks, is the American Dream: No matter where you c0me from, or who your parents are, if you got the goods, you can make it. No, folks, "making it" does not mean entering into a ruinous financial commitment to purchase a large, pretty box that slowly rots away over a period of 100 years (I put it in such terms to highlight the absurdity of the notion). In fact, under the loose lending standards up to this point, you needed hardly any "goods" at all to achieve that dream. The American Dream is certainly not confined to ownership of a house, as its new common usage implies. This narrow definition so tragically shortchanges the phrase's meaning that it's nearly comical and wholly demeaning. In fact, it's true that the American Dream includes owing a house only coincidentally, a choice (not a requirement) that's part of a much larger success. Millions of overextended families flailing at water's edge on a financial waterfall, or simply crushed under a mountain of debt, hardly fits anyone's definition of success - except for the lenders, agents and brokers who reap the obscene profits from this darkening field.

The actual country that we live in may not be all that its cracked up to be. We all certainly don't have an equal shot at fame and fortune, and we all may not be treated equally under the eyes of the law, yet, but a dream is supposed to be something truly great, a paradigm toward which we strive and will one day perhaps transcend. What's always made America great is certainly not its reality, but the unique set of ideals, including democracy, liberty, opportunity and equality, toward which that reality has slowly marched over the past 230 years. If those ideals now include the newly redefined American Dream, then we're marching the wrong way.

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- eternitus