Is the 'American Dream' realistic or idealistic?

[LeonardoBjj]

We've got a shrinking middle class. Unfortunately it’s getting harder and harder for normal people to own home, go to college, or have a family survive on a single income

- It's the same here. You cant rise a family earning minimume wage.

 

[filthybliss]

- It's surprising how expensive is a high education in US.

Yeah, it is pretty nuts compared to the rest of the world.

 

[nostradumbass]

The concept has become pretty incoherent. I don't think the concept even started as a measure of material possessions, it was freedom, equality under the law and free markets creating few barriers to success and "the pursuit of happiness", then as we turned into more of a consumer culture, it became a house and a car and a family, and now apparently it's all of those things but also not having to work too much. It's kind of funny that Oxford's definition was "through hard work, determination and initiative", and the one from polling was tons of free time and personal freedom.

Asians seem to manage it just fine.

 

[jk7707]

It depends on what era you're looking at. It was realistic for a long time but we're approaching a point in 2025 where just the basic metric of owning a house is out of reach for the majority of adults in this country, while an increasingly wealthy class of people view the homes that those other people want to buy as an "investment".

A major reconfiguration on real estate regulation needs to be made or this problem is only going to get worse.

Study: Hopeful homebuyers need income of nearly $117,000 to afford typical home in U.S.

 

[IDGETKTFO]

If you are an american, and believwe in america, its realistic. If you are an illegal, and want to take advantage of american citizen funded programs like welfare and medicare, then the american dream will fail. We need to get these illegal aliens out of this country so we can put american citizens first.

 

[joy2day]

Well, let's see. Most people in the world live in shit places where you have zero opportunity to do something with your life, like China, India, Latin America, and....

How about African cities with no electricity or running water? This is the kind of place where there are no hopes and dreams:



The US is a divided place, but and has its share of challenges, more so now than in past days.

But there is a reason that millions want to come here from bad places- because in those places there is no hope, while here there is.

People are overly cynical about these kinds of questions because there is a lot of victim narratives and lack of perspective on what it is like most places where people live in the world. The places many will model as great, such as Sweden or Switzerland don't have as many people as one US state, so they aren't good examples because they aren't where most people live.

It takes more effort than ever, but absolutely the American dream is still alive.

 

[Beechwood]

Small Businesses Aren’t Hiring - Because Big Cronyism Is Murdering Them​

https://redstate.com/redstate-guest-editorial/2025/05/07/small-businesses-arent-hiring-because-big-cronyism-is-murdering-them-n2188724

By Seton Motley

The evolution from capitalism to cronyism bears some distinct markers. Perhaps chief amongst them is the ever-increasing domination of…everything by the biggest of Big Businesses.


In the Cronyism Economy, small businesses shrivel up and die — because they aren’t large enough to pay Big Government for the cronyism Big Businesses purchase with ease.

The small biz carcasses pile up. And they — and their market shares — are then bought on the cheap by the Big Businesses. Making the Big Bizs even bigger and even more able to purchase even more cronyism. Which does even more damage to small businesses…. Lather, rinse, repeat….

We’ve for decades been told that small businesses are vital to our economy. Mostly because they are. But Big Biz seems to have paid EVERYONE off — to successfully memory hole this vital truth.

When small businesses are facing this sort of crushing downward pressure? One thing they definitely aren’t doing is hiring people — because they are too busy trying to stay alive. Which also means things ain’t great for their existing employees.

Well, welcome to the modern U.S. economy for small businesses.

On May 1, we had this….

Fewer Small Firms Report Job Openings: “The latest NFIB survey also finds fewer employers handing out raises.”

“NFIB” stands for the National Federation of Independent Business, i.e., small businesses. The likes of Amazon and Apple ain’t members.


April was a really good jobs market. Just not for small biz. How was March?

Job Openings Fall to 6-Month Low in March

Oops. February?

US Small Businesses Cut Jobs in February

I’m noticing a trend. January?

Jobs Report Shows a Hiring Slowdown as Companies Are Acting Like ‘They’re in a Recession’

Was 2024 any better for small business? Heavens no…..

Private Sector Job Growth Slows in December

Small Business Hiring Continues to Trend Downward in November

October offered a brief respite….

Small Business Employment Holds Steady

But it was only a brief respite. Here’s September….

Small Business Job Openings Drop to Lowest Level Since 2021

President Donald Trump didn’t just inherit a bad economy from Joe Biden. He inherited an ongoing, rolling bad small business economy from (at least) Richard Nixon — and his initial outsourcing capitulations to Communist China and the rest of the planet.

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RELATED: The CFPB Has New Allies: The Big Banks

Treasury Department Makes Major Changes to CTA-BOI Enforcement, Signaling Good News for Small Businesses

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As noted, there have been some good recent jobs reports. They just haven’t been good for small businesses. Big Businesses have been doing just fine….

These Fortune 1000 Companies Are Hiring Now: “Working for a large, well-known company has many advantages - especially now….(B)ig companies (are) hiring in a wide variety of roles and in many locations….”


Big Tech is hiring like crazy. So too are the Big Banks….

Banks Are Making Big Hires

That article is discussing the likes of JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Barclays hiring. Not the local bank your neighbor owns. Except your neighbor may not own his neighborhood bank for very much longer….

When Community Banks Die: How Small Businesses Are Affected: “Community banks are going away: They’re consolidating, being purchased by big banks, and closing.

“As the community banking market erodes, small businesses are being squeezed….(because they) can’t meet conventional lending requirements from big institutions….”

Get all that? It isn’t just the death of small banks. Their deaths lead to the deaths of surrounding small businesses because the small banks will lend them money — and the Big Banks won’t…:

“Community banks provide 77% of agricultural loans and over 50% of small business loans….What community banks offer small businesses in the lending process is almost intangible – because banks know the community, they’re able to provide loans to businesses based on information that isn’t just found in a business’s finances.”

Because who needs agriculture? I mean, we don’t need to eat or anything.

Big Banks are more and more using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make their loan determinations. Which is about as human-free an experience as there currently is in our economy. And without the humans — you lose the humane.


The great flick “The Big Short” was a look at the 2008 global economic crisis — caused in large part by the Big Banks. In which Brad Pitt’s character said: “You know what I hate about <expletive> banking? It reduces people to numbers.”

Well, Big Banks and their AI-driven, human-free robo-lending certainly reduce people to numbers.

Small banks don’t do business that way. But more and more, small banks don’t do business at all. They’re being murdered by Big Banks and their Big Government cronyism.

Which, as we’ve seen, is awful for Main Streets everywhere.

Cue Bob Seger.

 

[Evbo]

Lenny showed me the American Dream is unachievable. Although he did accidentally kill a woman, so that's always going to be something of a stumbling block