The End of the Amerikan Dream
The message that nobody wants to hear…
The American Dream, the Amerikan mantra, is characterized by perpetual growth, perpetual progress, perpetual prosperity, perpetual entitlement—the next generation will always “have it better” than the last. For generations we have lived the American Dream and experienced ever-improving living standards and material wellbeing, yet most of us have never thought about how it all came to be—we have just assumed that it will never end.
Unfortunately, the American Dream must come to an end, because it is, and always has been, unsustainable. Unfortunately, too, awakening from the American Dream and returning to reality will be unpleasant, especially for future generations—living the American Dream has come at a tremendous price.
Why?
We have paid for the American Dream by living beyond our means—supplementing the consumption level enabled by our earned incomes at any point in time with “incremental” income generated by depleting our economic and environmental reserves and with “incremental” income generated by incurring economic and environmental obligations against our future. In the process of perpetuating our inflated Amerikan lifestyles, we have taken, but we have not replenished; we have borrowed, but we have not repaid.
Over time, we have vastly depleted our critical economic and environmental resource reserves, and we have incurred economic and environmental obligations against our future that are both excessive and of questionable quality. We are rapidly approaching limits in both areas; finite resources ultimately run out and accumulated obligations must ultimately be discharged. When we reach one or more of these limits, the American Dream will end.
While the end of the American Dream is inevitable, the circumstances under which it will end are still within our control to some degree. We can dream on, reach one or more economic or environmental limits, and experience a catastrophic awakening; or we can take action now to mitigate the adverse effects associated with our awakening by voluntarily choosing to live within our means. (See www.wakeupamerika.com for proposed solutions; I welcome your solutions as well.)
In retrospect, the American Dream will be viewed as more of a society-wide junkie high, which it is, than a dream. The American Dream has been a multi-generational distorted reality characterized by unsustainable excess, during which we, as Amerikans, have enjoyed inflated lifestyles enabled by consumption at unsustainable levels—excessive consumption.
The issue at hand is whether we have the courage to voluntarily awaken from the American Dream, terminate our addiction to excessive consumption, and face reality—discharge our accumulated obligations and live sustainably within our means from this point forward. The alternative is a rude awakening from which many of us will not survive.
The American Dream is history. It is time to Wake Up Amerika! and face reality!
The American Dream, the Amerikan mantra, is characterized by perpetual growth, perpetual progress, perpetual prosperity, perpetual entitlement—the next generation will always “have it better” than the last. For generations we have lived the American Dream and experienced ever-improving living standards and material wellbeing, yet most of us have never thought about how it all came to be—we have just assumed that it will never end.
Unfortunately, the American Dream must come to an end, because it is, and always has been, unsustainable. Unfortunately, too, awakening from the American Dream and returning to reality will be unpleasant, especially for future generations—living the American Dream has come at a tremendous price.
Why?
We have paid for the American Dream by living beyond our means—supplementing the consumption level enabled by our earned incomes at any point in time with “incremental” income generated by depleting our economic and environmental reserves and with “incremental” income generated by incurring economic and environmental obligations against our future. In the process of perpetuating our inflated Amerikan lifestyles, we have taken, but we have not replenished; we have borrowed, but we have not repaid.
Over time, we have vastly depleted our critical economic and environmental resource reserves, and we have incurred economic and environmental obligations against our future that are both excessive and of questionable quality. We are rapidly approaching limits in both areas; finite resources ultimately run out and accumulated obligations must ultimately be discharged. When we reach one or more of these limits, the American Dream will end.
While the end of the American Dream is inevitable, the circumstances under which it will end are still within our control to some degree. We can dream on, reach one or more economic or environmental limits, and experience a catastrophic awakening; or we can take action now to mitigate the adverse effects associated with our awakening by voluntarily choosing to live within our means. (See www.wakeupamerika.com for proposed solutions; I welcome your solutions as well.)
In retrospect, the American Dream will be viewed as more of a society-wide junkie high, which it is, than a dream. The American Dream has been a multi-generational distorted reality characterized by unsustainable excess, during which we, as Amerikans, have enjoyed inflated lifestyles enabled by consumption at unsustainable levels—excessive consumption.
The issue at hand is whether we have the courage to voluntarily awaken from the American Dream, terminate our addiction to excessive consumption, and face reality—discharge our accumulated obligations and live sustainably within our means from this point forward. The alternative is a rude awakening from which many of us will not survive.
The American Dream is history. It is time to Wake Up Amerika! and face reality!
posted by Chris Clugston at 10/17/2006 06:01:00 PM
1 Comments:
Chris,
You have certainly taken on a monumental task here! I am impressed with your www.wakeupamerika.com website, your timely and well-delivered message, and the courage you're showing in driving home a message, as you say, we don't want to hear ... we Ameikans had better listen! Keep beating that drum!
Chuck
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