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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1259692-The-Death-of-The-American-Dream
Rated: E · Essay · Cultural · #1259692
The death of the American Dream and my thoughts about it
         In an age of technology and “freedom”, I find myself questioning the validity and even existence of the American Dream. It was once true that someone could believe in the fact that they could work hard, do their job well, and make a good living for themselves; maybe even make some extra cash. But as every waking minute passes in this decadent and depraved millennium, that hope, that dream fades away slightly. So much so, that eventually it won’t exist anymore. It will be a sad and awful day when Americans can no longer believe in the American Dream.
         
         Life continues as if nothing is happening. People go on obliviously living their lives, as the one American ideal, the one that this country was built on disappears. The one reason that this country exists is because of peoples’ ambitions and hopes, and that ideal becomes more and more impossible as time passes.

         To get a job and excel at that job is becoming less of a possibility as more jobs require higher and higher degrees from esteemed universities, but university tuitions are ever climbing. One year’s tuition at a public university runs at about 10,000 dollars a year and more esteemed universities can run up near 50,000 dollars a year. So how is someone supposed to succeed and move up, if the initial requirements are very difficult to acquire and not even guaranteed to do anything for you?

         I am not saying that it can’t be done, that one can’t get into an esteemed university and get a degree. It is perfectly possible. Everything is possible. People constantly get into such universities and get scholarships to these universities, but that is not the point of this rant. Such circumstances should not have to be done to make it in this country. There shouldn’t be any small print, qualifying needed, or anything obstructing the one thing that every human deserves, the ability and right to succeed in society by working hard and having motivation.

         How can society continue to function (although that is a question in itself) when people are being bought into these various universities and sweet talking their way through to a degree, when hard working decent people get next to nothing. In past years, it was possible for a young man to open a small business, and by the time he was ready to retire, have made enough money to support his family and to a little extra to splurge on, but we have taken it too far. In this foul year of our lord two thousand and seven, people take risks in opening their own businesses and put everything on the line, only to be shut down or monopolized by some mega conglomerate. One that is run by some stuck up gentry who can’t get down from their ever-present pedestal, not even for one second, to even notice and heed the true workers and businesses. The real companies are built on hard, real, work; not greed and a complete lack and ignorance of morality.

         When my great grandfather came to America as an immigrant, he only had six dollars in his pocket, but he made the best of it. He started his own hardware store and supported his family and became a pretty good businessman. But this was in a completely different time, a time when you didn’t have to fear the government’s incompetence, a time when you could make a life for yourself with your own business.

         But now the age of the American dream has come to an end. Throughout the history of the United States, people have come to America in search of hope and second chances, but what do they find now? A land of blood-sucking corporates, and it is too late to save us. It is too late, we have too much momentum to be stopped. We will continue to barrel down on any unsuspecting small businesses and swipe at them as we fly by. We will continue to spiral out of control until we just get too out of control. Then we will crash hard, crash and burn, a collapsed nation. But what better way to open our eyes and come to a realization? That is the only way to end this nonsense. Go back to square one and do it all over.

         Now that the American Dream, if not soon, will dissolve. Now we can step back and examine it. How things went and how prosperous life was in yesteryear. We rode that wave, that wave that was the American dream. We rode it as far as we could let ourselves go and we screwed it up. We rode that wave until it crashed. But the fun is over now, and if you were to go to the highest hill in your area and look, “with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark – that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back”.
© Copyright 2007 Kevin A. Katz (kcatz at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1259692-The-Death-of-The-American-Dream