The American Dream is Not Economically Viable — But This Is
When you think about the “American Dream” what’s the first image that comes to mind? I’m going to wager it’s a house with a white picket fence, a car or two in the driveway, and 2.4 children keeping you busy.
This version of the American Dream is what most of us are familiar with. It came into being following World War II. Europe had to be rebuilt and as the only member of the conflict left relatively unscathed, the United States was happy to oblige.
Ex-soldiers returned home and went straight to work in American factories pumping out consumer goods for the new post-war economy that emerged. In no time at all middle-class homes popped up in residential suburbs, giving birth to the American Dream.
Underpinning that dream was the ethos that, with a little elbow grease, anyone who was willing to put in the work could have a slice of the dream for themselves. The American Dream wasn’t just about the things you could buy with hard work, it was the unwavering belief in a meritocracy that became the gateway to greater social mobility.
While the boom did happen and the American Dream did exist, it didn’t last. The 1970s and 1980s ushered in an era of inflation, new monetary policy, and economic unraveling. In the process, the value proposition of work fundamentally changed…
