Is the American Dream Now the Impossible Dream?

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Written by Jimmie Burroughs Email this article to a friend

It was James Adams who coined the term “The American Dream” back in 1931. Remember, that was just a couple of years after the bottom fell out of the economy, resulting in the worst depression this country had seen or has seen since. So I would say Mr. Adams was really being optimistic.

I wonder if he would still be that optimistic today if he were still living? I for one doubt it and I’ll tell you the reason why. By 1931 the industrial revolution that commenced in the 18th century had increased the average earning power across the world by 10 fold; there was plenty of cheap energy and abundance of natural resources. That has all changed today; we are on the downward curve of the energy bell and natural resources are dwindling.

Our economy is dependent on a continual growth pattern of at least 2% to 5% annually. However, according to the exponential growth system,  nothing can continue to grow without coming to a crash. What would be the results of a total crash of the economy? It would mean a far a worst depression than the great depression of the 30s. It would mean mass unemployment like the county has never witnessed before.

No one can say for certain when such a crash will come but it is certain that it will. The only thing that will stop it is if the GDP, Gross Domestic Product, levels out to 0. But if that happens there would still be a great depression and great employment; so we can’t win either way.

What could change the direction we are headed? A new form of cheep energy and new industries that do not depend on natural resources that are depleting could help.

There is nothing at present that fully meets those two requirements.  Even if those two things do materialize in our lifetime, it is still going to require a new lifestyle that is much simpler than our present way of living. Today a lot of the population is congested into the large cities and large cities, in general,  are struggling to keep afloat financially. Public services are being downgraded. Parts of Detroit Michigan are now living on darkened streets because the city is no longer able to pay the electric bill. It seems that this is going to be permanent since the light poles have been ripped out. Cities across the United States are struggling with similar problems and even states are near bankruptcy.

If the American Dream is dependent on a robust economy, and it is, then we can conclude that it now is the impossible dream because the economy is a long ways from ever getting back to where it was before 2008. In fact regardless of what the politicians would like for us to believe, it probably won’t get there anytime soon if ever and perhaps not in our lifetime.

This may seem to be all negative but not so. The American dream was never real for the majority anyway. What could be a positive result is getting back to the basics of life and realizing the things that are more important than living an unreal American dream that requires both husband and wife to work, spending very little time together as a family and placing more emphasis on things as well as having little time to enjoy the things they work so hard to get.

Let’s forget about the American Dream for a moment and think instead on the American Privilege. It is a great privilege to live in America, the land of the free. Here is the difference it makes: if you have a roof over your head, have food to eat and clothes to wear and have transportation, then you are in the top 15% of the wealthiest people in the world. Instead of bothering with with the American dream, we focused on living within our means and used the extra money to help the poor and destitute of the world, we then would reach a dream far more valuable. We could help save the lives of little children across the world. 26,000 children will die today across the world from starvation and treatable disease. Fulfill a better dream; start supporting needy  children today: www.CompassionInternational.com

I enjoy the present day comforts of life but I don’t require a home so large that it requires me making a huge salary to afford. I’ve lived in small and large homes and have discovered that living in a large home makes me no happier. Driving a new car makes me no happier. I have also discovered that living above my means does make me unhappy.

There is nothing wrong with working hard and wanting to do well and reaching your dreams. It is wrong however making it  the priority of your life and believing that getting things will fulfill the desires of the heart. Things won’t make a person happy, neither will success. The big home and the nice car and all the other gadgets that money will buy do not bring fulfillment and purpose and certainly not happiness.

Keeping up with the Kardashians is a sample of the American Dream though perhaps exaggerated. A recent group has gotten together a petition of thousands of signitures to try and get the program removed from TV. Their claim is, “We feel that these shows are mostly staged and place an emphasis on vanity, greed, promiscuity, vulgarity and over-the-top conspicuous consumption.”

The show seems to me to be just another example of the more we get the more we want; ever trying to fulfill that void that is within the heart. Man is born on a quest to relieve the vacuum that they feel within their heart and mostly never realizing that it is the absence of God that they long for.

I read in the yahoo news that the NBA league and players can’t settle their differences concerning money. The millions that they make are not enough. There is a struggle between the league owners and the players to see which can get the most money from the 4 billion dollars on hand. Games have presently been suspended. Maybe it is time for the fans that generally make a fraction of what they make to boycott them for a while. Money will never satisfy nor will a person ever get enough of it.

So if there is something good that can come out of this time of change, it is that there needs to be a change, a change in how we live and think; a return to a simpler lifestyle; an emphasis on the things that do make life more enjoyable like the family and relationships; the emphasis on spiritual matters that have been neglected, a return to God as a nation.

Will this actually happen? I would hope so but it is unlikely as long as most people still believe that if they could just make enough money to buy that large house in the right neighborhood and drive their dream can then they would be happy. The sad thing is by the time they do finally arrive there, if they do, most of their life will already be spent.

I will tell you truly what makes my life meaningful is my relationship with God. It gives me purpose daily that I don’t have to wait on. It gives the joy and contentment that my heart longs for. It fills the vacuum in my heart with God’s presence. Perhaps if you agree with me that the American Dream is now the impossible dream, you might be ready to change your direction and learn how to have a relationship with God.

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Jimmie Burroughs is the author of JimmieBurroughs.com ; get more tips on personal development: www.JimmieBurroughs.com

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