NPR is doing a series on THE AMERICAN DREAM. Generally speaking, I like NPR. Although nothing is ever ultimately perfect, and who can say what is objectively perfect since we are all subjective human animals and one man's (or woman's) idea of perfection will always be different from anothers'.
The series began Tuesday morning with some relatively blue-collar guys in the Midwest speaking about how the AMERICAN DREAM is much harder to attain these days. I don't say 'blue-collar' condescendingly or dismissively either because, quite frankly, I know from blue-collar. Where I grew up, guys in high school (overwhelmingly, if not exclusively) strove to secure a job at either Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point steel mill or at General Motors Assembly plant, where (by the way) my own father was employed for thirty years before his retirement.
So as long as people bought cars and steel was in demand (by 'whomever buys steel,' as I would have said when I was in high school) things were good. If I was lucky enough to secure a position with either of these two industrial giants, I was guaranteed a healthy income, superior benefits and what was considered by me and my peers to be 'job security'.
But when your maximum level of education attained is H.S. Diploma, and you're not a particularly aggressive self-learner, you may not fully understand supply, demand, costs, revenue, taxes, economics, competition etc etc, blah blah. And when there are no longer tens of thousands of jobs in your neighborhood, you feel you've been cheated and your AMERICAN DREAM has turned into a nightmare.
I well understand how that feels BUT, (speaking of perfect) this world, this species, this country, business (etc etc, blah blah) are NOT perfect. And furthermore, things change. Things begin, things end, and always, always, always - things change.
Guess all I'm saying is, maybe a little information; maybe a little more education; maybe a better education (Santorum Shuddered!!) would help these folks have a better understanding of what's going on.
And I am in no way bad-mouthing this country because I most certainly love the life I am able to lead in America and know many non-natives who having experienced it, and would prefer it to living in the places from which they came.
But I am saying that I think people should be more aware of. . . EVERYTHING they can! So an AMERICAN DREAM without a bevy of facts, awareness, some hard work and a heap of realism, the AMERICAN DREAM is just a dream. And we all know that every dream ends and then we must wake up.
What do YOU think?
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