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American Dream 3.0
Jun. 4th, 2011 11:13 pmA good perspective on the current crisis. Haven't seen so much relevant information brought together in one piece yet. I'd add a few details, but it's very good already. Most importantly, it adds a historical perspective that most of today's analyses lack.
By Walter Russell Mead
[...] For eighty years we have defined the American dream as an owner occupied family home, preferably with a nice swathe of crabgrass-free lawn around it. The home mortgage was the centerpiece of a society of consumers based on debt-financed living. It was life on the installment plan. The latest downturn in the housing market is one more grim signal that in its current form, the American Dream is going the way of the dodo. [...]
This isn’t the first time the American Dream has died. The old dream — your own farm rather than your own home — once dominated American culture, politics and family life as much as the family home ever did. The slow and painful death of that dream was one of the country’s core preoccupations in the first half of the twentieth century. The death of the new dream is likely to be a big deal as well.
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/06/02/the-death-of-the-american-dream-i/
By Walter Russell Mead
[...] For eighty years we have defined the American dream as an owner occupied family home, preferably with a nice swathe of crabgrass-free lawn around it. The home mortgage was the centerpiece of a society of consumers based on debt-financed living. It was life on the installment plan. The latest downturn in the housing market is one more grim signal that in its current form, the American Dream is going the way of the dodo. [...]
This isn’t the first time the American Dream has died. The old dream — your own farm rather than your own home — once dominated American culture, politics and family life as much as the family home ever did. The slow and painful death of that dream was one of the country’s core preoccupations in the first half of the twentieth century. The death of the new dream is likely to be a big deal as well.
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/06/02/the-death-of-the-american-dream-i/
