The "American Dream" has been perverted into a disgusting caricature of itself. The American Dream isn't about trying to compete with the Joneses or trying to live your own version of Cribs. Our new version of the American Dream is a sham and it has been implemented to get all of our money. My family and I went to Sweden this summer for about a month and spent time with my wifes family. One of the things that I enjoyed the most is the fact that people have less and they are content with that. People actually care about everyone else, their well being, their health, and the environment. People are happy. They spend time with their kids and family. They seem to do the stuff that we "don't have time" for. I'd give up my big house and big car and all of my crap to have that kind of contentment. If that is socialism then sign me up.
you picked up all that in a month did ya? I'll take my lower tax rates and buy my own happiness. 50% just isn't sittting well with me considering it will be going to waste anyways.
Don't be a twit. You don't think he could get a good sense of the country/society by living with his wife's family for a month?
When my wife was pregnant with our second child 17 years ago, we made a conscience decision for her to quit work and stay at home with the kids. Sure, we knew we would have to do without some things, and that money would be tight at times. But we felt it would be the right thing to do. 17 years later, all three of my kids are well behaved, well mannered, don't get into trouble and all do well at school. Have we sacrificed? That depends on the definition of sacrifice. We absolutely did not sacrifice our kids upbringing. Sure, I drive a 14 year old truck to save money, our house is not as big as others have, and we do things ourselves instead of hiring people to do them. I don't consider any of those things "sacrifices". In my opinion, my family has been living the American dream for many many years. But according to Trader_Idiot, I can't be living the American dream because I am not "wildly successful". If only I was a white male living in the suburbs....oh wait.....I am. I'm so confused.
I wish you the best of luck in said endeavour, even though prudence would indicate it's doomed to failure. Great posts from MB and Behad. My wife is going to stop working at the end of the year to stay home with my daughter. It's going to be difficult to adjust, without a doubt. Having thought about the exact scenario MB describes many times, I find that the worst part of the american rat-race is that it really sucks you in. And I don't mean that in a trite way either - it's enormously difficult to lower one's so-called standard of living, no matter how much of that is mere materialism. The real cost of our "cultural capitalism" is the continued reinforcement that wealth somehow equates to success and happiness. I could go on and on about this, but I'm no saint or lecturer. I imagine that I am very similar to MB - disgusted with this lackluster life based on material demands and unnecessary stress - yet incapable of figuring out how to abandon the mindset and society that propogates it. Maybe I'm getting there... but I'm not sure. EDIT: MB - if you have any thoughts on this I'd love to hear them...
Yes, my best friend married a woman from Sweden and he has mentioned roughly the same thing. Trust me (better yet, trust the highly successful entrepreneurs), if someone is intelligent AND lucky enough to become a millionaire in this country, they are going to do so whether there is a Democrat or Republican in the White House. If my relatively small circle of friends is any indication, there is a LOT of inherited wealth in this county- many of these individuals are just as lazy, if not more so, than the poor and disenfranchised. Trader_Jorge's rant is classic textbook right-wing paranoia- "they're going to take all my hard-earned money....African-Americans are the problem...the liberals hate the American dream...." Come on, that's the best you got? Even Palin is more creative than that.
Yeah, I picked all of that up in a month. It isn't like we were staying in a hotel travelling. We were living with people that live there every day of their lives. Do they have problems? Of course, but they also have a complete different set of priorities. They have a peace about them that I know I don't have and I had never seen with anyone here in the states. It also wasn't something that I saw immediately and that I don't think that you could ever see if you weren't staying with locals. I saw how they work, live, and play. I saw how families spent time together on a daily basis. I saw how families had time to go fishing with their kids after work. The last two years I paid 33% in taxes. Yeah, they may pay 50% in taxes there but when I look at it, that's only 1/6th more than what I paid. I also know that while their system isn't perfect, their government works 1000 times harder than our to try and help them. I'd gladly pay the extra in taxes to get the benefits that they receive. The problem is that I don't think that Americans and the American government would be able to work like theirs. We do not have the mentality to help our neighbors. It's not just people like you, even though you are a part of the problem, it's a whole culture of "getting mine". It's like that with all cross sections of society regardless if you are rich, poor, or in between. It doesn't matter if you are a part of the government or not. It's just beat into us from a very young age. I served in the military voluntarily when I graduated high school. It wasn't because I couldn't go to college, I had scholarships. It was because I was proud of being an American and I wanted to serve my country. Today, I'm ashamed to be an American. I'm ashamed of our country and what we stand for. I'm ashamed of how we have become so arrogant that we do not care what everyone thinks of us. Our country needs change and while I like Obama and his message, I do not think that he is enough. We need a serious change in our way of thinking and our priorities. We need a complete culture change.
I help people every single day. I am much better at it than the .gov is, so why should my money go to FEMA who cannot get ice to my neighbors for 3 days when I got them ice and water on saterday? I stayed with the "locals" in china and scotland. In china they had no time with their families, they worked all day everyday. Sweden has much more money than us per capita. Get real and wake up. The world is changing and if our priorities as americans are more free time and recreation thos in India and china whose priority is to make enough money to support 3 generation of people (parents themselves and children) we will lose.
im still wondering how obama is a socialist. i mean the CEO of exxon should not be paying the same tax rate as the single mother with a kid and two jobs...not too sure how that's socialism. seems like fairness and common sense.
This is where you lose me. I don't know what it is we are "losing" that's so heinous... and I seriously doubt you can answer that question either.
You hit the nail on the head. The night before we left to come back home my wife and I were sitting at her cousin's table and talking about that exact same thing, the rat race. The idea of coming back here and getting involved in it again just completely broke me down. I just sat there with my face in my hands and cried. It was a life changing moment. I have kids from my previous marriage and they live with heir mom here in Houston. They are the only things that are keeping us here and when they are grown, we will almost definitely move over there. In the mean time, I don't know how to get out of the rat race. I wish I did because like you said, it is all consuming. We just try to do the best we can. I said it in a previous post but America needs a complete culture change to make it better. I thought that maybe a severe financial crisis would be a good thing for Americans. I was totally against the bailout and still am. I thought that perhaps having a rough time for a couple of years might help people live within their means and bring people together a little more. I seriously have no idea how to fix it.
