Did you ever want the American Dream?

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Hi yall,
Did you ever want the American Dream of being married and having a home with a white picket fence in the suburbs and a 40 year career at the same company witth 2 kids and retire with a pension. This kind of life was the case for many people in the 1950's during the post war economic boom. I never really fully wanted this version of the American Dream because I always wanted to be a small business owner and live on a church of Christ commune. I wanted to live in a commune ever since I was a little kid which is the opposite in some ways of the traditional American Dream. However I did pursue the American Dream by graduating from college. I know some of yall are not Americans. i always wanted to start a commune as opposed to the American Dream.

The American Dream has become pretty much impossible for most young people today because we cant afford homes with our own money. The American Dream says you can make it in this country if you just work hard enough but in today's America working hard is no longer enough. People have to work multiple jobs and have side hustles just to afford rent. I realize that there is a good chance I would be living with my parents even if I was neurotypical because of rent. people cant even afford to get groceries any more.I just think the American Dream died with the 2008 Recession. Did you ever want the American Dream? I will most likely never have the American Dream i grew up with or if i do it will be much later in life after I inherit money from my parents.

Does the American Dream concept also include having the highest pollution per capita, or the highest jail population per capita, or nearly half of the World’s serial killers? How about making films like Carnal Knowledge, or inventing Rap, or chilling beer?

How about the god given right to shoot people in occupied countries because they don’t understand your soldiers words or gestures? Or the right to deny Russian missiles in the Americas whilst having their own missiles as close as 50 miles to the USSR border (as was)?

Lets call it the American Nightmare!

The Cold War ended decades ago. The French Communist Party now has only 42,237 members. TBH only people our age understand half what you just posted.

I really don't understand why wanting to live in material comfort is uniquely American. I think the idea of the "American Dream" arose amongst people of my parents' age who grew up in poverty during the Great Depression.

I never wanted it because I didn’t believe in it - for a few reasons. Even my grandparents didn’t have that kind of life.

Ouch I’ve just been spanked! Yes I’ve become decidedly out of touch in recent years, and not just because I’m restricted to french radio (the source of most of my news). I find I don’t much longer care what happens out there, being pretty comfortable in my own surrounds.

It probably started when I came across some copies of Fortune which I’d not yet got around to reading, and which turned out to be just as informative and entertaining as ever, though they were several years out of date! I let my subscriptions lapse after that.

So are we discussing the right to pursue happiness here? Hardly an American monopoly! It may seem unlikely to most Americans, but I effectively missed not only Trump’s first presidency but also Bidens, and it came as a shock to find that they’d elected Trump again! It all seems so unreal...

I didnt say living in material comfort was uniquely American. It seems like most people around the world would want to live in at least some sort of material comfort. Gen Z cant even have any hope of buying their own home. They cant afford to raise a family because of sky high inflation and stagnating wages.

So what happens in 30 years? Millions of abandoned housing tracts? Wouldn't there be a lot of squatting? There seems to be a lot of unoccupied apartment housing in China that nobody ever lived in. But maybe by now people have moved into those places. Doesn't China have more extreme corporate greed than the US? Oligarchy is a fundamental aspect of Chinese society, is what I have been given to believe.

Well a lot of McMansions will flood the market. There may be a decline in real estate once all there is all that supply A lot of those homes will be snatched by up by state street and Blackrock and only the rich will own homes by then most likely. There is already a lot of squatting going on in some states like California. I have heard that there are abandoned cities in China but I dont know if thats still the case. I dont know if corporate greed is worse in China but corporations by their nature are greedy. I predict the economic situation will be even more dire for Gen Alpha and Gen Beta than it is for millennials and gen z unless some miracle happens between now and then.

McMansions will be occupied by more than one generation. My neighbor has rented out a room to help with expenses.
One can look at the housing situation in Hawaii to see how they deal with a ridiculously high cost of housing.

I guess in Vancouver all the houses are being bought by foreigners?

I live in Canada, so no.

I'm not sure what The Canadian Dream is, if there even is one, but right now I think it's being able to actually afford a place to live and real food.

Not that I'm homeless or starving or anything, but anything could change that in a split second.

I live in hope of finding an ex ski lodge going cheap. Being up in the mountains, surrounded by so much open range, really would make me happy!

This is all very well for someone in their twilight years, but for young people, big cities are where it’s at, as that’s were the most money is being made.

That sounds delightful, but I don't see anything especially American about it.

Maybe, I just don't Think the American dream wanted me.

Very much this; people had it no doubt, and still do, but the idea it was representative or accessible for all is a fallacy, like "the golden age of air travel".

The cultural/media set has no idea how very inward looking it's always been, (although never moreso than today)

They don't have ski lodges? They sure have the global warming that's putting so many out of businesss!