Tuesday, February 18, 2014
American Dream Over? Why the Rich are getting richer and the poor poorer
Cal Thomas of "Is the American Dream Over?" starts by presenting the American Dream and the expectation that a new generation would achieve a better life than their parents or grandparents. The American Dream is "basically building a life based on foundational principles". But standards of living are declining. Thomas believes the American Dream is over because of expanding, encroaching, over-taxing, over-spending, and over-regulating government. Which I agree with as well. I don't think the 'American Dream' is a reality for most Americans now a days it's not the same as before, everything has changed. Thomas says, "A monopolistic government school system keeps the poor from achieving their dreams. The creation of a government that is out of control, and thus out of touch robs every citizen , preventing fulfillment of the original American Dream." This makes total sense to me. I do not completely blame the government but i do think it robs us citizens but we are to blame as well. He talks about how a dysfunctional government is not the way people are going to be able to achieve their dreams. Reich's "Why the Rich are Getting Richer and the Poor Poorer" talks about how the role you play in society is a big part of why you're either economically going down a slide or carefully steadily climbing the ladder. His argument keeps a steady tone with a consistent idea that lower wage jobs have decreasing fortunes, while higher wage jobs fortunes are increasing. Both explaining why the 'American Dream' is not the same original concept.
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Morgan, I disagree that the “American Dream” is not the same original concept. I don’t think that the concept has changed, but instead the “American Dream” has just become harder to obtain. Cal Thomas says that the United States has become “embarrassing”. He argues that because of war and the current shape of the economy that our government is dysfunctional. He blames the politicians, democratic ones particularly, claiming that they have “[led] us down a path to economic and cultural insolvency.” He also blames the current American culture and suggests that our virtues have changed to where we no longer support avoiding drugs, staying in school, and staying married. He also suggests that the citizen of the United States have lost “personal honesty” and “professional integrity” because we are no longer taught that in our youth.
ReplyDeleteIn “Why are the Rich getting Richer, and the Poor, Poorer” Robert Reich specifically addresses this topic and uses real data and numbers to explain it and to use as evidence. For example, Reich claims that in the 1970’s AT&T used to have factories in the United States and paid American citizens to work for them and to create their products. But in the 1980’s, AT&T realized it was cheaper to outsource to other companies and have their products built over seas at incredibly cheaper rates. Because of this, AT&T was able to gain profit, but that the same time, all the citizens that once worked for them lost their jobs. Situations such as this are the reason that the “rich are getting richer, and the poor, poorer”.
Out of these two arguments, Reich has a better argument because he uses statistics and thoroughly explains what their impact is rather than Cal Thomas who only made generalizations and pointed fingers.
I agree with Morgan that the American Dream is not the original concept. I believe it is still there though. Today in society, I think the American Dream has now just modified. The dreams are even bigger than before. Back in the olden days the American dream was to own that white picket fence that surrounded a nice little house owned by a contemporized, easy-going family. Now a days the American Dream is to be filthy rich and own a three-story mansion surrounded by a moat, owned by a man in power with his trophy wife, and maybe a kid or two. True is that the American Dream has just changed from living an easy-going life to a “big spender” life. I also agree with Morgan when she says not only is government to blame for the economical crisis between the rich and poor, but we as citizens are also to blame. For the most part the reason for the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer is mostly taxes decreasing for the rich and the higher cost of living for the poor. I do believe this problem can be solved for more equality between these two, but it is going to be very tough considering that the rich don’t want it to be solved. Over all, the American Dream hasn't disappeared into an abyss; it just simply has been warped into a new modern version of its old self. People still want that white picket fence, but they just want it ten feet high, if you know what I mean.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Morgan on the points of why it's harder to obtain the "American Dream", but not on the last point of the concept of the American Dream itself changing. In Cal Thomas's article he blames the government for the economy, because of going to war, and the way the rest of the systems are run. Cal also blames people feeling entitled to everything. I would say that this is as true today as it has been for a long time. There are few that become rich and the majority that is poor. Some people work hard and others win the life lottery. Every job has to have someone working it. Not everyone can own a business, someone has to be a janitor, waiter, or garbageman. It's the same today, as it has always been. Robert Reich, the author of "Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer" backs this up with data in his published document. He explains how American businesses are outsourcing labor to other countries where the people will work for less money. The jobs that are leaving are the jobs that people don't move up from. It's just as difficult to achieve the "American Dream" today as it was before, only now there are less unskilled manufacturing jobs.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Morgan that the American dream is not the same concept but I also agree with Kelly that that very dream has become increasingly harder to obtain. The distorted concept of the American dream has caused a mass confusion of the population as to what the American dream actually means. Herbert writes "America will never get its act together until we recognize how much trouble we're really in." This is saying that in order for us to obtain that dream, we have to realize what terrible situation we have put ourselves in. Cal puts the majority of the blame on the government and I do agree that they have the majority of the blame for this situation but it is almost as much our fault, as citizens, as it is the government's. We have distorted our view of the American dream and the wealthy have increasingly felt empowered to everything, especially opportunities. The American dream, in my eyes, has become extremely more difficult to obtain because opportunities have decreased over the past twenty to thirty years. Even the opportunities that are available rarely give you the chance to get into a position where you can make your desired amount of money or live your lifestyle you dream of. If someone truly wants to achieve the modern American dream they must have a combination of hard work, opportunity and in many instances, luck.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this idea of the “American Dream” has been lost within all the luxuries that money bring. The American Dream now means to have the most money and the fanciest things. Those are some of the points that are made in “Is the American Dream Over?” Furthermore, I would like to say that Cal Thomas makes his point clearer by making comparisons to the new idea of the American Dream and the old one. In “Why the Rich Are Getting Richer, and the Poor, Poorer”, Reich seems to attack readers with a bunch of facts and statistics that, although help his argument, make the reader feel like they are getting just facts. The bigger picture isn’t there for me. Yes the facts are there, but I feel that I was just getting overwhelmed with a bunch of facts and nothing else. In Thomas’ essay, he makes a more personal connection with the loss of the American Dream. He says that when a parent says they want their kid to live a better life than they did, that means that they hope the kid has more money than they did. It seems that the American Dream has become all about money. Why can’t the American Dream mean to be better people than their parents were? Of course, money is necessary to survive. However, is having a lot of money worth being corrupted by the evils that money brings? Money and the “American Dream” can change and destroy the good in people.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely that the American dream concept has changed, but I also agree that this concept has become increasingly harder to obtain over the years. The American dream of our generation has been altered into this idea that we must obtain everything we possibly can, while just fifty years ago we would have been happy with just a comfortable life. In Cal Thomas’s article, he blames the government for its dysfunctional ways and the change of not being able to achieve the American dream. Thomas says, “The creation of a government that is out of control, and thus out of touch robs every citizen, preventing fulfillment of the original American dream”. I agree completely because you can see the difference in people achieving their dreams when you look at today’s society.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Morgan’s stance on how not only the government is to blame but we as citizens are to blame as well. In Robert Reich’s “Why the Rich are Getting Richer and the Poor Poorer”, the central concept is that the part we play in society determines your fate. He backs up all his arguments with data that shows the differences between the lower wage jobs and the higher wage jobs. Overall, I think that the American dream is still around today, but it has become something completely divergent and nearly impossible to obtain with the resources we are given.