Americans' Dream

Nomnom...as I type I chew Havarti cheese. :)

I admittedly had no idea what the heck this "American Dream" everyone's talking about is. So, like any not-completely-lazy curious person, I did a likkle bit of research. The definition of this "American Dream" has changed quite a bit over time, but I guess:

The American Dream started as a "promise" (*cough, cough*) that here in America, the "Promised Land", there is happiness for any and all people.  A few of the sources I looked at refer to the United States Declaration of Independence, particularly the phrase "pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness." That was the original American dream.

Now, though, I'd say the American Dream roughly translates to living a (relatively) good life, with no financial or family or medical problems, among other things. The "good life" would be a successful life, and one filled with happiness and stability. This is the promise of the American Dream--provided you work hard.

After all, it just wouldn't be right if hard-working people toiled their lives away to get a well-deserved happy life and the fortunate people born with silver spoons just happened across this happiness.

SO, the American Dream today:

 "is split into two distinct camps: those who work to earn it and those who think it's owed to them."

The article I chose is "The American Dream--RIP," published January 13, 2012. It talks mainly about the American Dream's aspect of money. Reading it, I found myself agreeing completely with the author's idea that the one of the problems with America and its Dream is money. "Found money" in particular. The author referred to "easy come, easy go" a lot throughout the article, saying that although a minority of people in America are lucky enough to come across "found money", it is still too many.

Found money is basically easy money, or just money people didn't earn. The article cites investing in the stock market, fraud-committing CEOs, professional football and basketball players and Leigh Steinberg (a super-agent of star NFL players) filing for bankruptcy, and the lottery as examples of all that is wrong with the world. Or, at least, the world within America.

The problem is that when people just get money, they think they can do whatever they want with it. Which they can, I suppose, but not without oft-negative repercussions. Nowadays, people with easy money are quite extravagant with their spending, as we see in The Great Gatsby (which means even in the 1920s people were a little too liberal with their money). People tend to spend "found money" much more easily than money they've earned. Also, people's warped thinking has led some to the idea that they are owed such money, and thusly we have the Occupy Wall Street protests.

That is messing up the American Dream. Owed money my a--erm, foot. How lazy and greedy can you get? Those of us who don't have jobs now are anxious looking for jobs and ways to earn and save money, and you (protesters) who probably have jobs to be doing or looking for are spending your time lobbying for that 1% to stop being greedy and let you in on the action? Selfish little--go look for job openings, fools.

What's worse is that once people get their easy money, they blow it on worthless things--their "American Dream". The Lincolns and Cadillacs and $XX million dollar houses. Nice dream. The money that the working- and/or lower-class ( most of us aren't really working now...) deserves or would like to work for is given to lazy bums and wasted, and it rarely comes to the lower-class at all. Our "dream" is a living nightmare of economic atrophy and wasteful idiots.

How does all that relate to The Great Gatsby? Allow me to point out that most of the setting in the story is set in wealthy places. New York, the city of lights; West Egg, where Nick Carraway lives between two huge estates and where Jay Gatsby throws extravagant parties almost every night; East Egg, across the way and where the even more wealthy live in palaces of white.

The very setting of The Great Gatsby showcases Americans' liberality, "living the dream" as it's often put. Gatsby is said to have inherited his money, and Tom and Daisy Buchanan were born into wealthy families; Exhibits A, B, and C of easy money. They live in houses that easily impress our Nick Carraway, who comes from a "well-to-do," or prosperous, family as well. However, seeing as Nick actually works, I wouldn't classify him as one of those who live an excessively lavish life.

I don't think there's anything more to say. The American Dream today is that of high-class and expensive materialistic things to some, and to others it's just to be comfortable again. To relate it to GeGa (my new pet name for The GrEat GAtsby), many of the characters in the story set in 1920 are just as bad as the 1% in today's world.

I don't like it. You can control dreams, right?

Why don't we change this one.

"But there's nothing greedy about corporations selling products, making a profit, creating jobs, paying employees, benefiting investors, and everyone in the chain paying taxes that fund entitlements, government and infrastructure. Absolutely nothing."