The Death Of The American Dream In 22 Numbers

[Chef Ramsay]

We are the generation that gets to witness the end of the American Dream. The numbers that you are about to see tell a story. They tell a story of a once mighty economy that is dying. For decades, the rest of the planet has regarded the United States as “the land of opportunity” where almost anyone can be successful if they are willing to work hard. And when I was growing up, it seemed like almost everyone was living the American Dream. I lived on a “middle class” street and I went to a school where it seemed like almost everyone was middle class. When I was in high school, it was very rare to ever hear of a parent that was unemployed, and virtually every family that I knew had a comfortable home and more than one nice vehicle.

But now that has all changed. The “American Dream” has been transformed into a very twisted game of musical chairs. With each passing year, more people are falling out of the middle class, and most of the rest of us are scrambling really hard to keep our own places.

Something has gone horribly wrong, and yet Americans are very deeply divided when it comes to finding answers to our problems. We love to point fingers and argue with one another, and meanwhile things just continue to get even worse. The following are 22 numbers that are very strong evidence of the death of the American Dream…

#1 The Obama administration tells us that 8.69 million Americans are “officially unemployed” and that 92.90 million Americans are considered to be “not in the labor force”. That means that more than 101 million U.S. adults do not have a job right now.

#2 One recent survey discovered that 55 percent of Americans believe that the American Dream either never existed or that it no longer exists.

#3 Considering the fact that Obama is in the White House, it is somewhat surprising that 55 percent of all Republicans still believe in the American Dream, but only 33 percent of all Democrats do.

#4 After adjusting for inflation, median household income has fallen by nearly $5,000 since 2007.

#5 After adjusting for inflation, “the median wealth figure for middle-income families” fell from $78,000 in 1983 to $63,800 in 2013.

...

Much more...http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-30/death-american-dream-22-numbers

[Mike Christ]

Very enlightening, thank you for sharing.

[pattu1]

Enlightening.
People outside the US still believe in the American dream.
They think immigrating to the US is a ticket out of poverty.

[Agestorzrxx]

To get this done we must combat he false media narratives about capitalism and defend it on moral grounds, then we must OUTLAW communism.

[Chef Ramsay]

Enlightening.
People outside the US still believe in the American dream.
They think immigrating to the US is a ticket out of poverty.

It used to be but bringing one's family here and only being able to get a job (if you're lucky) at or just above the minimum wage range will keep you living in poverty and amongst drug infested communities. If you come here to hop on to government services then shame on you cause we're the most broke country in the history of the world and it can't last forever.

[ajareselde]

Enlightening.
People outside the US still believe in the American dream.
They think immigrating to the US is a ticket out of poverty.

Actually that was true about 10 years ago, but definetly is not true now.
People search for way better alternatives like Canada, Ireland, Denmark, Norway ,Germany etc..

I would never move to US today, no way.

[jaysabi]

Enlightening.
People outside the US still believe in the American dream.
They think immigrating to the US is a ticket out of poverty.

It used to be but bringing one's family here and only being able to get a job (if you're lucky) at or just above the minimum wage range will keep you living in poverty and amongst drug infested communities. If you come here to hop on to government services then shame on you cause we're the most broke country in the history of the world and it can't last forever.

Most immigrants who come here do so to work because they live in areas where lack of work is the cause of their poverty and there is no government safety net to keep them fed. There is a 1:1 correlation between working and not starving in their lives and work is the only means of not starving. The notion that immigrants come here for government handouts is largely a republican fiction. In more places than not on this planet, an immigrant coming here and making minimum wage would give be a dramatic improvement compared to the poverty they're used to. Immigrants believe in the American dream because it exists for them, and everything they've seen in life confirms the notion that you get what you work for, they're just looking for the opportunity to work.

[Chef Ramsay]

Enlightening.
People outside the US still believe in the American dream.
They think immigrating to the US is a ticket out of poverty.

It used to be but bringing one's family here and only being able to get a job (if you're lucky) at or just above the minimum wage range will keep you living in poverty and amongst drug infested communities. If you come here to hop on to government services then shame on you cause we're the most broke country in the history of the world and it can't last forever.

Most immigrants who come here do so to work because they live in areas where lack of work is the cause of their poverty and there is no government safety net to keep them fed. There is a 1:1 correlation between working and not starving in their lives and work is the only means of not starving. The notion that immigrants come here for government handouts is largely a republican fiction. In more places than not on this planet, an immigrant coming here and making minimum wage would give be a dramatic improvement compared to the poverty they're used to. Immigrants believe in the American dream because it exists for them, and everything they've seen in life confirms the notion that you get what you work for, they're just looking for the opportunity to work.

I'm not denying any of their motives but you can't show up here and make a minimum wage and take care of a family (clothing, feeding, housing) on that. Then, you consider health care, schooling and the like and you're starting to become a parasite on the limited and dwindling amount of domestic citizen workers contributing to the tax base. This isn't the immigrants coming to America at the turn of the 20th century where they show up with $20 in their pockets and immediately find some low wage job (when there was no welfare programs) and then you work for many years before you're able to afford bringing one or more of your family members here w/ the ability to take care of and/or absorb them into your income level and be sustainable. In theory, I'm all for free people crossing imaginary borders but the dynamics separating us from a time where that can work are enormous. We have over 80 million working age adults our of work and not counted in the unemployment numbers and 47 million on food stamps and other forms of welfare just for starters, so we really can't absorb the costs of further immigrants until the ship can be turned around or it's defaulted to hell and something else arises. My thread about the loss of the american dream in 22 numbers provides a big picture of the domestic situation and it's not conducive to further poor people coming here when we can't take care of our own thanks to big government deteriorating this country for far too long. I've heard of and agree w/ all of the ancap/libertarian positions on immigration but they can only exist when there is no welfare state bleeding the productive class of their labor and stripping the job market for newcomers and the ability to foster a charitable society to handle those that can't take care of themselves w/o govt assistance.

[Swordsoffreedom]

Very enlightening, thank you for sharing.

Indeed, although by the numbers it still beats the relative wealth of a heck of a lot of other countries
That said there were better times that is for sure
#5 After adjusting for inflation, “the median wealth figure for middle-income families” fell from $78,000 in 1983 to $63,800 in 2013.
(Appreciate they did inflation adjusted value on it)

How does it get turned around
Structural Changes in job training and education to cater to a new world.

[BillyBobZorton]

2 is correct. It never existed, it was always a mirage. A true ponzi.

[pattu1]

Enlightening.
People outside the US still believe in the American dream.
They think immigrating to the US is a ticket out of poverty.

It used to be but bringing one's family here and only being able to get a job (if you're lucky) at or just above the minimum wage range will keep you living in poverty and amongst drug infested communities. If you come here to hop on to government services then shame on you cause we're the most broke country in the history of the world and it can't last forever.

Nope - I was talking about engineers, who are paid much higher in the US than in developing countries. Coming to the US to hop on to government services is impossible unless you come illegally.

[BADecker]

I just listened to a good portion of Karl Lentz's Talkshoe audio done on January 31st. The audio is almost 5 hours long. It is episode 171, and can be found at http://recordings.talkshoe.com/rss127469.xml, and can be downloaded for later listening.

The two interesting things in this audio are, it shows the simplicity of the winning things that Karl does and teaches, and it shows that there are groups springing up all over the place helping each other to win, using Karl's simple method.

Karl's stuff isn't new. Much of it is as old as the hills, and the rest of it was placed into the Constitution. We just haven't used it very often... and extremely seldom the way Karl does it.

The American dream is coming back.

[Ingatqhvq]

First, America does not have a Caste system, therefore, there is no 'middle class' in this country. Because this erroneous statement is constantly used by the media [such as you], many people 'believe' this class exists.
What I see that is very interesting.. almost everyone who makes between $10,000 to over $200,000,000 per-year, believe THEY are in the 'middle class'. [Romney, who is in the latter, believes he is 'middle class'.]
So I would ask you, Mr. Snyder to first do research and then define for us the scope of what constitutes the Americans mistaken view of 'middle-class.
Other than that faux pas, yes, the economy is being manipulated down by this administration.