Saturday, April 23, 2011

The American Dream?

What exactly is the American Dream? Is it to live your life in the manner that you wish to as long as you are not hurting others or is it to live off the backs of others? Looking at the current state of affairs in the country I would have to venture a guess that the majority of Americans think it’s the latter; I personally believe it to be the former.

In the 1700’s, before the term came into popularity, the American Dream was the dream of liberty, freedom of ones own thoughts and beliefs. The American Dream was the dream of a country where people would have a chance to become what ever they were capable of; the dream of building a country out of a wilderness rife with dangers.

In the 1800’s the American Dream expanded to include the dream of discovering and taming the lands of the west, to build a life out of a harsh land that offered no help. The lands to the west had a magnetic draw for those that wished to discover more; those that had a strong independence.

In the 1900’s the American Dream started to change. In the 1930’s during the Depression the American Dream became being able to put food on the table and a roof over your families head. Unfortunately many began to believe at this time that it was the duty of the Government to help accomplish this dream.

Now as we are at the infancy of the 21st Century the American Dream has gone full circle. It is now the dream that everyone is equal and should have the same advantages as everyone else. No longer do people believe that everyone is created equal and that it’s up to each individual to succeed or fail. Now the belief is that the Government will level the playing field, even if that means taking from those that have worked for everything they have obtained and give it to those that are not willing to work.

This belief is not the belief of every American, but it is the belief of enough Americans to cause a split in America that has not been seen since the War of Northern Aggression and the Revolutionary War before that. In the Revolutionary War the split was between the Patriots and the Loyalists. The Patriots were trying to win their independence from the King, the Loyalists on the other hand wished to stay part of England regardless of the actions the King was taking. In the War of Northern Aggression the split was between the “Rebels” of the southern States and the Northern States, which included the Federal Government. The South believed that the Federal Government was overstepping it’s power and the that Northern States that were pushing for tariffs in the Southern States were breaking the pact that had been made when the Constitution was ratified. The Patriots and the Southerners were trying to live and preserve the American Dream, the original American Dream.

Today the split is not very different from either the Revolutionary War or the War of Northern Aggression. Today the Patriots are the ones that are trying to preserve the Constitution, get Government spending under control, and try to get back to a limited Government as defined by the Constitution. On the other side there is again the Federal Government which is drunk with power and the ability to spend without restraint, and, for lack of any other term, the Loyalists. The Loyalists are the Unions that are protesting for the Government to protect their benefits, there are the liberals that believe the Government should regulate anything and everything, and then there are those that have become dependent on welfare and believe the rich owe it to them. I honestly believe that it will take a miracle to repair the split in the American People today. No matter which way our future goes there will still be a split. If the Patriots win it will mean substantial cutbacks to entitlement programs, reduction in the size of Government, power transferring back to the States, and the return of our Military back onto American soil. If this becomes our future the liberals and unions will erupt. They have already shown that they are more then willing to protest, create chaos and employee violence to be heard and to get their way, just like a toddler pushing a parent to learn its limits.

If the left comes out on top America as we know it will change forever. The liberals and progressives are calling for higher taxes from the rich to pay for the entitlement programs they want to keep and the ones they want to add on. Even with tax increases on the “Rich” our Politicians tell us that this will just reduce the budget deficit, each Presidential candidate talks about cutting the “deficit” in half, they never talk about how to actually reduce the “debt”. Once our “rich” have been tapped out the Government will have to start taxing the middle class, after the middle class is tapped out there is the lower income levels. The problem is that very few of the lower income group pay taxes. When I say the lower income levels do not pay taxes it means that even though taxes may be taken out of their paychecks they get it all back at the end of the year either by being below the minimum income level or by having enough deductions to reduce their taxable income below the minimum. Even if our Government taxes our working classes to the point that they can get no more it will not help to reduce our debt, probably not even reduce the budget deficits. This is also assuming our rich continue to be rich and continue to create jobs. This is assuming our middle class continues to earn enough to be above the minimum income level to pay taxes. All of these things affect the amount of taxes that will be collected, the amount of money coming into the Government. When you lower the taxes that are collected without reducing the budget the deficit spending goes up and the debt goes up. The question at this point has to be where does the country go? Are we headed for George Orwell’s 1984? Will we get to where no one earns an income, we just earn credits. Credits that will be used to only purchase Government approved items and Government approved foods. Are we headed for only Government housing that will be issued to you based on how good a citizen you are? Are we looking at a country that tells you where you will work and when, where you no longer have a say in your future? Are we looking at a country in which all the profits a company makes are paid directly to the Government? Of course if no citizen gets paid an income then the only profit that could be made by a company would be from sales overseas and just look at the stability of the other countries in the world.

I’m not a doomsayer or a conspiracy theorist but it’s not hard to look at the direction the country is heading, look the protests that are happening throughout the country, and listen to the uninformed people throughout the country without being a little worried about what the future has in store for us. When you look at the turmoil in the rest of the world it really paints a grim picture. I wish I had answers that would not be painful to anyone, but that is just not the reality of it. If we do not get the spending under control, if we do not create an environment in this country that attracts business to stay and new businesses to open then our financial future is bleak. If we reduce the spending now the largest pain will be in entitlements to the low income and the no income. If we do it now while the average person and the upper class still have control over their incomes personal charity will increase and those that really need it will receive help. By keeping entitlements high along with ever increasing budgets we are going to get to a point where their will be no money to spend on entitlements and the average person will not have the money to be charitable. We will all need charity at that point; we will no longer have an American Dream.

Steve Avery
4/23/11

1 comment:

  1. lmao ever heard of proof reading? this makes no sense, your train of thought is not only impossible to follow, it's laughable. just saying. don't @ me.

    ReplyDelete