The American Dream

[Senkusha]

...Is Bullshit.  In 2024, the so called American Dream has been discovered to be nothing more than a piece of propaganda written by the Wealthy Elite to keep workers pacified and controlled.  Why do I say this?

First, let's look at what the Dream is supposed to be:  An individually owned house with a yard and a white picket fence in Suburbia with a spouse and 2.3 kids, maybe a dog and cat.  You get to go to college and earn a four year degree for a career that you get to choose.  You work your entire adult life, providing for your family, and then you get to retire at age 65, so that you can go travel the world, or take cruises, or do whatever hobbies you've put off for your younger adult life.

It doesn't matter if you're working for somebody else, or if you're bold and brave, and decide to start your own business.  You're still working so that one day, you can retire and finally get to enjoy life.  But this is all a lie, a fantasy.  The truth is much more sinister.

Reality shows Americans the truth:  You get good grades in school to demonstrate that you can obey.  Then you go to college, get into massive financial debt to obtain a piece of paper that says you have a clue about your chosen profession, your occupation.  Then you work and work and work for 40 or 50 years, all the while, putting off your dreams of world travel, eating exotic foods, and forging friendships through a diverse set of cultures, until your body finally gives out, or your mental capacities fail.  Then you're offered retirement.  Because you're of no more use to Society.  Congratulations, you've been exploited to the point of being broken and damaged beyond usefulness.

Sure, you may get that house, but that comes with a 30 year mortgage.  Mortgage actually means "life debt" in Latin.  You may find romance and get married, but that too is going to cost a financial burden.  You may have children.  Guess what?  More debt.  The cost of just delivering a baby is several thousands of dollars.  Then there's the 18 years of raising a child.  Several more hundreds of thousands of dollars -- That should go towards your golden retirement fund.

And there's the trick.  The American Dream is nothing more than a trick of smoke and mirrors.  A distraction.  Here's a shiny new house that you get to take care of, and that your TAXED on each year, and if you don't pay the TAXES, despite paying off the mortgage at the end of 30 years, the Government will just TAKE YOUR HOUSE.  All these things that comprise American society, the house, the cars, the marriage, kids, are all distractions.  To keep you working, while the Chief Executives of the companies you work for (yes, plural), get to live the good life, your retirement life, RIGHT NOW.

And this is pre-Covid, 2020.  Things have gotten dramatically worse in the four years since the Pandemic.  We see the corruption now, all the "Record Profits" at the expense of normal working people who can't afford to enjoy little scraps of life anymore.  Having to decide between eating, paying rent, or keeping the lights turned on.  Debts that demand people work two, three, or even FOUR jobs, just to make ends meet, and everybody in the household is now working.  And we're all exhausted.

You want to know what's really crappy about the American Dream?  That retirement that you've got your eye on?  Those are the worst years of your life. Your body is broken, your mind is wasted.  You end up not traveling the world, meeting interesting people, or sampling foreign cuisine.  No, you end up rotting away in some nursing home, if you're lucky, otherwise, you end up just being a burden on your children.  Sounds more like an American Nightmare to me.

When are we, as a Working People, going to demand the paradigm to change?  We want to actually enjoy OUR LIVES too!  But, how do we make this change?  What needs to happen?  And those are quite literally the million dollar questions.  Because we can't just all stop going to work.  All of society would collapse into chaos.  Many innocent people would end up dying.  So that's unacceptable.  Voting won't work either.  Why?  Because ALL the political parties are funded and controlled by the corrupted corporations and stockholders that sold us this Nightmare.

I think that we should be investing our skills into our own services that we can provide.  This means honing the skills that bring us joy and pleasure.  At least until our entire System is fixed when we won't have to worry about selling anything to anybody anymore just to survive.  What do you think?  What can we do as individuals to make a better system that allows everybody happiness without the exploitation that is currently running rampant throughout the Country and the World?