musings on American dreams
Aug. 14th, 2009 01:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerA commentor in another thread on healthcare remarked on people being "in favor of people becoming as rich as their talent and hard work will take them"
And it made me think--when did this happen?
When I was a kid growing up, what I heard about as the American dream was "having a happy family, a good job, a new car, and a house in the suburbs". That was something that, especially in a manufacturing economy where even people with no more than a high school education could get and gradually master fairly well-paid jobs, was a realistic goal for most, if not all, Americans. And, moreover, it was a goal that placed individuals as part of a community. It's the George Bailey Dream.
Now the American dream seems to be to somehow become *rich*, have everything you want, and never have to work. It's not about working hard and gradually achieving a comfortable life. It's about somehow gaming the system or getting really lucky or duping other poor sods out of their savings so as to be a fabulously wealthy *individual*. It's not a dream that sees people as part of a community. It's not a dream that promotes cooperation and understanding or a sense of responsibility. It's an intensely selfish dream that puts the individual and their happiness at the centre of their life and sees almost everyone and everything else as hostile forces standing in the way of one's own greed. It's the Gordon Gecko Dream.
Profit is seen as an unmitigated good, and monetary reward is the sole goal. That change has all sorts of implications for how we structure society and its adjuncts. For example, a lot of services that are essential to life in a modern society used to be *utilities*; these were run for the public good and prices were set at a level that everyone could afford, based on cost to create those goods rather than "what the market will bear". Now many of those services are being run as commercial ventures; some of them are somewhat regulated as to prices they can charge, but they are getting into all kinds of trouble (look at the California power industry) that would never have happened when they were not-for-profit utilities.
And, of course, this carries over to healthcare. Now healthcare (insurance in particular) is a place to make fortunes. Funny, in my old fashioned way I thought it was a place where people worked to make healthy people.
Time for me to go wave my cane at the kids on the lawn...
And it made me think--when did this happen?
When I was a kid growing up, what I heard about as the American dream was "having a happy family, a good job, a new car, and a house in the suburbs". That was something that, especially in a manufacturing economy where even people with no more than a high school education could get and gradually master fairly well-paid jobs, was a realistic goal for most, if not all, Americans. And, moreover, it was a goal that placed individuals as part of a community. It's the George Bailey Dream.
Now the American dream seems to be to somehow become *rich*, have everything you want, and never have to work. It's not about working hard and gradually achieving a comfortable life. It's about somehow gaming the system or getting really lucky or duping other poor sods out of their savings so as to be a fabulously wealthy *individual*. It's not a dream that sees people as part of a community. It's not a dream that promotes cooperation and understanding or a sense of responsibility. It's an intensely selfish dream that puts the individual and their happiness at the centre of their life and sees almost everyone and everything else as hostile forces standing in the way of one's own greed. It's the Gordon Gecko Dream.
Profit is seen as an unmitigated good, and monetary reward is the sole goal. That change has all sorts of implications for how we structure society and its adjuncts. For example, a lot of services that are essential to life in a modern society used to be *utilities*; these were run for the public good and prices were set at a level that everyone could afford, based on cost to create those goods rather than "what the market will bear". Now many of those services are being run as commercial ventures; some of them are somewhat regulated as to prices they can charge, but they are getting into all kinds of trouble (look at the California power industry) that would never have happened when they were not-for-profit utilities.
And, of course, this carries over to healthcare. Now healthcare (insurance in particular) is a place to make fortunes. Funny, in my old fashioned way I thought it was a place where people worked to make healthy people.
Time for me to go wave my cane at the kids on the lawn...
