Has the American Dream Become a Nightmare?
For many the answer is a resounding – YES!
What exactly is the American Dream?
Is it the stereotypical:
- go to college
- get a good entry level job with a growing company
- settle down and get married
- buy a starter home with a white picket fence
- have 2.4 children
- put a Chevy in the driveway and a Coca Cola in your hand
kind of American Dream?
Or is that what we have been brainwashed to believe by the corporate marketing machine under the direction of the industrial titan elites?
For those that have pursued and successfully achieved this kind of American Dream, or some variation thereof, kudos to you. If you feel fulfilled and content with where you are in life, who am I to tell you that you haven’t achieved your version of the American Dream.
Live and let live.
But for those of you who have pursued and failed at this version of the American Dream you can take a little solace in knowing that you are not alone. If misery loves company rest assured that you’ll never be in want of fellowship.
In this post, I want to focus on one of the aspects of what I feel is a big part of the American Nightmare. I will focus on the other components in future posts, as well as what I believe is a path to help others wake up from this Nightmare and pursue the real Dream.
College: Is higher education the key to unlock greater opportunity?
We are told from the time we’re able to read and write that a college education is invaluable to achieving the American Dream.
“Invest in yourself!”
“Can you afford NOT to go to college?”
“College graduates earn 75% more on average over their lifetime than those with just a high school diploma.”
So on and so forth…
With over 1 Trillion dollars in student loan debt outstanding ($1,440,000,000,000 to be exact!) the idea of going to college has turned out to be a very costly mistake for tens of millions of Americans. For the past 4 decades, a college education has been pushed as the key to getting a well-paying career. This career is the means to a greater end of course. The end being a life of security and comfort and all the finer things that money can buy.
The sad truth is that the average college graduate starts off with just over $37K of debt before they even make their first paycheck. In a tough economy, there aren’t necessarily a plethora of hot jobs just waiting for inexperienced and idealistic young men and women to fill. What jobs that are available don’t end of being the entry level dream jobs that your high school guidance counselor dangled before your naive and impressionable eyes.
So, the college graduate ends up taking a job that doesn’t pay as well just to get their proverbial foot in the door. Now this debt saddled graduate is working a less than favorable job, making far less money than they hoped for, not feeling very secure and are very uncomfortable.
At least these graduates have a job, albeit not the dream job they were propagandized about. There are roughly 5 million people who are delinquent or in default on their student loans, indicating that at least to some degree they presumably can’t find work.
Sounds more like a nightmare than a dream
one that can’t be woken up from.
Fortunately, more and more people are waking up to the reality that this just isn’t the case. The growing popularity of apprenticeships, simple living, homesteading and good ol’ fashion entrepreneurialism is viewed as a better investment of a person’s time and money than a useless degree in baslet weaving, women’s studies, or even business management.
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Next in this series I will take a look at how Marriage and children have become part of the American Nightmare.
Stay Tuned!
What’s your version of the “American Dream?” I'd like to hear from you. Sound off below in the comments section.
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Thanks for Reading!
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As Always,
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If you still need to learn, how to learn, use a library, a computer, read a book, how to select literature; you might want to be in college.
http://www.studentloanborrowerassistance.org/bankruptcy/
But if you learn how to teach yourself by the time you finish community college, maybe not..
The American Dream
Niice! They Live!
Ah the "college is the key to success fallacy." Don't get me wrong, I love learning and will be the first to attribute value to education. However, nothing makes me crazier than the outrageous cost that people are willing to pay institutions of higher learning. My neighbors went bankrupt by banking on student loans to save them, I personally know people that have just accepted that their college debt is going to follow them to the grave, and one of the most successful people that I know is a high school dropout that applied himself in a way that still blows my mind.
There is definitely no one right way to walk through this life with regards to education and vocation. I'm so happy to see people starting to think outside the old-school American Dream box! Looking forward to the next post in your series!
Thanks. As a seeker of Truth, I also love learning. I discovered that very rarely true learning doesn't take place in college. Life and experience coupled with verifiable research tends to be the best teachers.
College is a meme.
Most shouldn't be there.
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When I think about careers that have really skyrocketed, I think of these self-made men who haven't even gone to college. They are geniuses in their own right like, say, Bill Gates. They make their own future and write their own paycheck, so to speak. Maybe there aren't millions of these people but there are a number of them. Then I think of other, ordinary people who do the jobs that must be done but will probably never be recognized for them. They make enough to get by on. Of course, there are the professionals: doctors, lawyers, teachers etc. They require a college education and beyond. Then there are those who have high aspirations and have been told "the lie" (that it's imperative to go beyond high school. I myself, believed that one, but when I see young people saddled with debt that dogs them for years, I have to say: Something is really wrong here!
I agree with most of your points. The American Dream is truly a nightmare that will ensure we always stay in debt, lust for nicer, bigger things, envy those who have those things, and remain slaves to jobs and money and only hope to retire, but will likely be unable to.
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It isn't only the American dream. Ask Canadians and Europeans if they are being the same lines of propaganda. Go to school, get your degree, get your dream job, buy your larger than life home complete with the two car garage and swimming pool. And don't forget the the cars and other luxury toys such as boats, motor bikes, snowmobiles and RV's. And don't forget the mountain of debt.
Jobs are hard to come by in your chosen field so you end up taken anything that will pay the bills because you now have the family and the pets to support.
I personally have done that, got the T-shirt and the pictures to prove it. I left a lot of that behind about 16 years ago and I haven't looked back.