Prosperity once was grounded in opportunity, to each citizen according to ability, but our American Dream has become staked to ownership -- big house, luxury sedan, RV, bass boat and myriad other toys that money can buy.What we've come to call "financial security" means taking two-week vacations, kicking back at the country club, sending the kids to college, living comfortably in retirement and all the rest.
Now the national economy has soured and our prospects have dimmed. For our children, the future looks even less rosy.
We blame government and banks, liberal Democrats and capitalist pigs, illegal immigrants from Mexico and opportunistic Commies from China, all the while denying the obvious: The U.S. economy has been undermined by The American Dream itself.
When we made the Dream about immediate personal acquisition, we begged for deregulation, easy credit, outsourcing and (because our actions speak louder than our words) corporate bailouts. The trade deficit balloons because we keep demanding something for nothing, cramming our lives with cheap imports.
Craftsmanship, quality and community don't serve our self-absorbed pursuit of getting more for less, so we're surrounded by shuttered businesses and abandoned houses. The staggering national debt is the product of our insistence that we're entitled not merely to the open door of opportunity, but to the final destination of prosperity -- without effort or sacrifice.
And by the way, we're pretty sure that our taxes are too high.
Assigning blame according to ideological stereotypes -- fat-cat conservatives blew up Wall Street and spendthrift liberals created The Entitlement Culture -- is manifest ignorance. Looking to either side of the political aisle for salvation is likewise idiotic.
We, the People, transformed The American Dream from beacon to time-bomb. Our short-sighted selfishness has weakened our nation's economic foundation -- perhaps irreparably.
