The American Dream

No, this is not about Dusty, but a very interesting article (I think) in the latest issue of Time Magazine.  It talks about the American Dream, how if you work hard you will prosper.  And how that dream is slipping away.  It states that 90% of Americans self identify themselves as in some tier of the middle class, while only 2% think of themselves as upper class and 6% think of themselves as lower class (must be rounding errors with the math).  A government report states that middle class aspirations are home and car ownership, college education for the children health and retirement security, and the occasional family vacation.  These all seem like laudable goals to me.  And they are getting harder to attain all the time.  The costs of housing, health care and higher education continue to rise faster than income.  Income is stagnant.

Americans, at least white Americans, have always had the idea of being able to make a better life for themselves.  First they pushed the natives west, then they dealt with all the issues of slavery and eventually emancipation. There always the thought that you could just pack up and move on.  Go west.  Go to where the opportunities are.  People say there is too much government involved in everything, but government has always played a roll in the expansion of the middle class.  One hundred and fifty years ago or so you have the Pacific Railroad Act which tied the continent together and allowed for westward expansion and development.  You had the Homestead Act which allowed people to settle west.  The Merrill Act which established land grant universities which brought education to more people.  When we had the depression, you had all the New Deal stuff and Social Security, which like it or not has provided a lot for a lot of people. 
World War II got us out of the depression, and after the war government spending on the GI Bill, home loans and cold war defense among other things ushered in the greatest expansion of the middle class ever. 

Now, however, the American Dream is more elusive than at any other time in our history.  They say it is actually easier for the French to improve their lot than it is for an American.  It used to be the Americans led the rest of the world in development and ideas and whatnot, but we are now seeing the rise of the rest of the world.  So what happens?  I worry about the next generations.  Are we going to wind up with a relatively few rich and then everyone else?  Are we going to figure out some way where everyone prospers?  Or do we just face the fact that some dreams come true and some don't?  I guess we need confidence in people,  we'll see....