“The American dream implies that hard work can bring you the life you want, whatever life that may be. That is all it means… There is nothing about “build it and they will come.” There is nothing corrupt or bankrupt in the concept of the American dream. I don’t believe in demonizing the west for its economic prosperity nor do I think that capitalism and business are bad things.”
First of all, I (and Andy has implied as much(don’t see Capitalism or business as purely bad. You imply a false dichotomy, Daniel, when you say things like:
“If you take issue with capitalism I would urge you to consider the alternative which is communism or socialism. Neither of those have worked very well anywhere that I know off.”
:a point that Andy effectively dealt with and, consequently, freed me to deal with the hegemony and semiological aspects of the “American Dream”.
That said, I would agree that the American Dream (or the mythology of it (certainly has its uses. On the positive side, it is possible that it has participated as an incentive for ambition. But that is up for debate since there is no way of knowing if an embrace of the American Dream is what drives the individual to ambition or if it is a matter of an ambitious individual adapting the American Dream as a motto or alibi. In this case, you have to ask if an embrace of the concept is a guarantee of success.
But the main difference between us is that the USE I am primarily interested in is that of a form of manipulation or smokescreen that masks not only the reality of Capitalism, but the very mechanisms that insure the failure of some while implying the utopian fantasy that if everyone just embraced it and tried a little harder, everything would be hunky dory. Let’s start with the most superficial aspect of it: the reality as compared the fantasy, the erroneous notion that Capitalism pimps is that if there is a will, there is a way. If nothing else, one could start their own business: the American Dream. But as statistics show, that dream quickly turns into a nightmare for the 50+% of startups that fail. So much for the Smithian vision of everyone applying their talents in a free exchange of what they produce. But then, as we have seen lately, what Capitalism sells better than anything, between American Idol and the occasional Lotto winner, is possibility. It’s almost become religious and a matter of faith in nature. Or as I like to joke:
It use to be: pray hard and follow these principles and you too may enter the kingdom of heaven.
Now it’s: work hard and follow these principles and you too may enter the kingdom of success.
The problem here, though, is the mechanisms inherent in Capitalism that insure many will not enter the kingdom of success while adding the alibi of making it seem like it must be some kind of moral failure on their part. Think: Calvinism. In other words, in order for anyone to succeed in Capitalism (the “American Dream” (someone has to fail. The rising tide lifting all boats may be a compelling metaphor. But it’s not a very accurate one.
And let me offer as example my personal experience. First of all, I like my job. And as far as pay, I am doing pretty good compared to a lot of other people. And despite my complaints about it and Capitalism, I actually like my bosses enough to not want to lynch them. So forget about the customary tactic of accusing me of whining. The reason I have what I have is because for about 5 years, I redirected my intellectual and creative curiosity from the liberal and fine arts to padding my resume with various certifications. But let’s focus this on the main one that got me the job: my third grade engineer’s license. Now the only reason that license has value is because not everyone had the intellectual resources I did and the willingness to spend the 9 months I did to pass the test. In fact, not everyone has the financial resources I did in order to obtain the resources I needed to do so. In other words, my success was built on the failure and loss of others. To put this in the perspective of the market and supply and demand: let’s say everyone suddenly got inspired and decided to get 3rd grade engineer’s license. That would make my license the equivalent of a high school diploma or, basically, ass-wipe. On top of that, I’m dealing with the reality of watching that particular license grow less and less valuable as most places concentrate their chill water and steam needs to Central Utility plants.
Now, of course, the economy has a lot of other needs than 3rd grade engineers. But that doesn’t eliminate the problem I am describing as much as it defers it enough to allow for the very fantasy of the American Dream you are describing. It still always comes at the expense of the other. To back it with a little statistical reality, not long after the meltdown, there were around 12 to 14 million people in America looking for jobs with about 3 million jobs available for people with college degrees or certifications of some kind. Of course, the need for unskilled labor may have filled in some of that gap. But we are talking about the “American Dream” here. So that doesn’t count. And while I’m sure that differential has closed a little, I’m not sure it’s enough to justify your embrace of the American Dream.
The other issue that the American Dream masks is that it is never so much a matter of how much you make; it’s a matter of how much you make as compared to everyone else. If the kid that was serving me a hamburger at Burger King was making as much as me, then the wages I was making wouldn’t mean shit since everything would be so expensive as to render my effort pointless.
Once again: in order for anyone to win in Capitalism, someone has to lose. The American dream only works in a world in which not everyone exploits it. A world in which everyone embraced the American Dream would only result in a lot of highly educated people serving you burgers or cleaning someone’s toilet. This is what makes the complaints of the thrifty such nonsense. I had a friend who owned a lot in stock and acted as if everyone followed his example, everyone would have what he had. What he failed to recognize was the paradox of thrift. If everyone were as frugal as him and refused to use credit for anything, the economy would have collapsed a long time ago taking down every stock he had with it. He embraced the American Dream while failing to recognize the dirty secrets that propped it up.
What it implies and the reality of it are 2 completely different things.