New American Dream?
40% Vote but Don't Work
Is the American Dream dead? If you ask the average American today he says
yes.
According to a Marist-McClatchy poll conducted earlier this month, four out
of five Americans think it is harder to 'get ahead' now than it was for previous
generations. The No. 1 reason cited was the political system, but not for
reasons you might think.
These Americans 'think the political system is unresponsive to their
needs.' In previous generations the political system was basically kicked to the
curb in the effort to get ahead. Maybe the real reason the American Dream is
dead for the majority is they no longer are willing to work in the same manner
as the preceding generations.
The one good thing that came from the poll was 78% of the respondents
recognized the fact it will be harder for the next generation to get ahead. In
this they are right because the newest working generation will have been
stripped of the entry-level, learning jobs to form a solid foundation that is
necessary to get ahead.
The rest of the questions the poll was split as the last few elections.
Fifty-five percent said the middle class is most likely to be left behind by
government policies. Forty percent said the poor are most likely to be left
behind. But the consensus, according to Lee Miringoff, director at Marist
Institute for Public Opinion was, "People just feel those in Washington are not
looking out for them."
That is the crux of the problem. The current Administration has connected
with these people by claiming it 'cares about them.' All you have to do is
listen to President Obama in an off-teleprompter moment when he is heard saying,
"It is good to be President because you can do what you want." But the people
don't feel connected to him or to Congress.
That is because it is the faceless bureaucracy that has filled their hands
insufficiently. They are slipping because, until now, Americans shunned
government handouts as much as they could. If in no other way, this
Administration has fundamentally transformed America from a Land of Opportunity
to a Land of State Handouts.
Government is no longer disconnected from daily life but an intrusion. In
essence, without fulfilling the wishes and wants of the government first,
business cannot move ahead. With the voracious appetite of the government
hindering economic progress, the American Dream is
beyond most people's reach because they have no idea of how to transfer their
mindset from their school days where everything was equal so we can feel good to
one where competition demands a winner and loser be determined.
That's the second strike against the next generation to go with the lack of
entry level jobs.
The Census Bureau isn't helping either. During the Reagan Administration,
the Census Bureau set the poverty line at just over $10,000 dollars. With
inflation gnawing away at the base of the dollar, you could have expected that
base to rise significantly. Recently the Bureau put out a report claiming the
new poverty line was $11,720.
By juggling the official poverty line, the government can move a large
group of people into and out of poverty with the stroke of a pen. Thus the
report can legitimize it's claim that at least 31.6% of all Americans fell into
poverty for at least two months from 2009-2011 while 27.1% did the same between
2005-2007 but only 26.4% of those that started the 2009 period in poverty and
were still there at the end of 2011. Did the government treat this category the
same as it does the unemployment numbers where, once the state-offered pay
expires, you don't count against the unemployment rate?
This is where another failed number the government puts out comes into
play. The large increase in part-time (read as poverty-level wages) jobs doesn't
begin to replace the number of full-time jobs that have simply vanished from the
economic landscape over the past six years. With full-time work disappearing,
the hopes to attain the American Dream also disappear.
Douglas Amy, professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke, wrote an op-ed piece
in the Huffington Post confirming the Rant's stance on this irreconcilable
dilemma. "The most persistent myth surrounding the issue is that the best way to
reduce poverty is to increase equal opportunity. Poverty is not caused by
unequal opportunity. We simply have too few jobs and too many jobs paying
poverty-level wages."
Government intervention hampers business. Hurting business means fewer jobs
and more competition for those jobs. It is a boon for business because the
desperation to get a job means the labor comes at a cheaper price than
before.
But is it easier to hold out a hand for poverty alms from the government or
actually work for essentially the same benefits?
Until government gets out of the "equality" business and gets back to
insuring a government operating under Constitutional restraints, the polls won't
change. Maybe it is time to return to our roots by allowing only those who own
property the right to vote.
That just might restore the hope that every American could attain the
American Dream and aid the economic recovery at the same time.
"I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility
to every form of tyranny over the mind of man."--Thomas
Jefferson
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