Rethinking The American Dream

There are certain mantras that we hear all the time, and I'd like to examine one of them. "The American Dream", but what does it really mean?

I'll get right to the point. The notion of an American dream is very collectivist minded. Firstly, it presumes that America is the only nation where a person has a chance to become prosperous. This is obviously not true, as the US has been slipping in economic freedom for the past few years according the economic freedom index done by a couple of economic think tanks. Nations such as Estonia and Chile now rank higher in terms of economic freedom. The US has the third highest corporate tax rate in the world, which alone makes it an unfriendly environment for businesses. In spite of all of that, there is still opportunity in the US and in many other places. The amount of opportunity is certainly relative though, as there is obviously far more of it in the US than in Venezuela, for example.

As far as the American dream goes, what exactly is meant by it? Is this dream something that individuals come up with all by themselves, or is this someone else's dream being pushed onto them? The standard version of the American dream means people having a career at a large corporation or maybe the government, getting a decent pension, getting a mortgage on an unattached home, and being reasonably prosperous with your pension and social security payments in retirement. This may have been an acceptable way to think of things in the 1950's, but things are different in the new economy. You need to be able to adapt nowadays, and also to continuously adapt in the future. The old model is still being pushed by the government, most teachers, and most parents.

There aren't any industries that are actually increasing full time employment nowadays. Automation, outsourcing, temp staffing, and robotics are all changing the employment landscape for everyone. Be honest with yourself about the way the world is working right now, and don't waste time wishing for a predetermined "dream" of how your life should be.

Everyone's life dream is subjective. Find out what your niche is in life, and go after it with passion and integrity. Become a value bringer to as many people as you can in your life and eventually you will find more value coming back to you. As Zig Ziglar famously said, "You can have anything you want in life, if you just help enough other people get what they want."

Maybe your dream is to live a bohemian lifestyle, or to travel the world, or to give your time to helping your local community, or to start and grow a successful business, or to be a successful home school parent, or any number of other things. We are so diverse that it is pointless to talk about an American dream or a Canadian dream or anything of the sort. Live the life that you value most, not what the mainstream narrative has told you to value.

Sources:
http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking
http://taxfoundation.org/article/corporate-income-tax-rates-around-world-2016
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-reject-the-american-dream