The American Dream Gone Wrong

In our society and culture today, we function mainly within a system of competitiveness, with the main reward being money, and all that comes with it; namely, power, respect, influence, comfort, and lots of pretty pretty things. Because America still holds onto the "ideal" of the American Dream, we are convinced that anyone can get achieve their dreams through hard work and determination, and that if you want something badly enough, you shouldn't let anything stand in your way. (That being said, there is an undercurrent to this line of thinking that implies that people who are not well off are to be blamed for their situation and also have the ability to change said situation at any time.) This system leaves us with an "every man (or woman) for himself (or herself)" mentality that has caused much damage over the years, and the amount of damage done grows larger every day.

The American Dream ideal is flawed in two ways. One is that in some cases, no amount of hard work will ever lead its doer to greatness. There are many people in America who work hard, who work constantly, who work when they're sick or injured, who work two or three jobs, and can still just barely afford to put food on the table. Don't believe me? Read Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, a fairly affluent writer who explored the world of the working poor by joining it. She discovered what many people still fail to recognize: while it is possible for people to start from humble beginnings and work their way up to a comfortable job and existence, it's also pretty unlikely; some beginnings are just too humble, and sometimes the odds to overcome are just too much. We don't even have a living wage in this country, and Ehrenreich proved that living comfortably off of minimum wage, and up to $5 dollars above it, is often not feasible.

The second flaw is the system of competitiveness and inequality that this ideal creates. This is what creates situations such as what we have in America currently, where the rich are very, very rich and the poor are more numerous than many realize. And because the rich have everything that can, or rather, has to, be bought with money, they use their power to continue upwards while most people get screwed by the system. The system takes care of its own, and only its own, so we have a situation where the rich and powerful bend the world to their whims, while a majority of people are suffering, struggling, and just generally having a very difficult time.

Not only that, but profit has become our god, and we've sacrificed many things to that god. One is our health: for instance, the food we eat today is generally unhealthy, and it gets more unhealthy all the time. More food today than ever is filled with additives, empty calories, chemicals, and unhealthy ingredients.Healthy food has become very expensive and specialized, while inexpensive food (and most food you find in supermarkets) is almost always unhealthy. How did it happen that we have to pay more to get less additives and chemicals in our food? Food is being put in the hands of giant corporations, who prefer quantity over quality, because that means more money. And this continues happening, because people's health and satisfaction is not the overall goal of our system; instead, goals such as stimulating the economy take precedence.

The air we breathe has worsened, along with our drinking, showering, and swimming water. We spend more time indoors under fluorescent lights, surrounded by chemical cleaning products. We have less time to exercise and less places to go to just walk in nature, as nature is being reinvented into malls and banks and gas stations. All of these factors contribute to obesity and various diseases. Just look at how many people have allergies these days.

We also seem to have sacrificed human compassion in terms of business. Rather than respect, appreciate, and attempt to help customers and clients, big businesses and corporations are so far removed from their customers that they don't care about them. It's plain to see in today's advertising and marketing the lack of respect towards consumers; the manipulation that goes on is obvious, and the lies are plentiful. Harmful products are marketed with intent to hide the truth. People are made to be unhappy so they will buy things: insecurities are created by advertising, leaving many with low self-esteem, and creating in others a constant sense of worry or fear.

People are convinced into buying things they don't need, and excess is encouraged and facilitated more and more. This, in turn, equals more packaging, more trash, and more of an "out with the old and in with the new" mentality that results in waste, and lots of it. So that, of course, negatively affects the environment and the planet. It's all a connected downward spiral.

Also, human relationships in general become strained when competition and love of money is the norm. People look at other people and think, "What can she/he do for me?" This type of thinking is dehumanizing and leaves no room for empathy or compassion. In such a system, inauthentic relationships based on manipulation abound. Understanding, leniency, and forgiveness are in short supply.

Our competitive system also teaches us to keep striving. It tells us that we should always keep moving towards something better. People who are already affluent want to move higher up in society. Neighbors compete to have the nicest, newest, most expensive things. Owners of companies believe that however much money the company is making, it's never good enough, and this mindset gets passed along all the way down to the lowest paid worker. Everyone is told that they need to keep working harder and harder, keep pushing and moving forward. Greed is used as motivation and then rewarded.

This type of system is harmful to all of us. Not only does it lead to the sacrificing of free time, but it also leads to an overall lack of satisfaction. If people are taught to never be satisfied and always want more, then they'll never reach fulfillment or achieve contenment and peace. They'll be stressed out, irritable, angry, and worried. They'll have lower self-worth and more health problems. Teaching people to be content where they are and with what they have is a good way to increase happiness and well being, but sadly, we seem to be doing the opposite of that.

If cooperation was the norm, and overarching happiness was the goal, we could accomplish something much more worthwhile. We could create a system in which we took care of each other, in which contentment was encouraged, in which compassion was ubiquitous. No longer would the poorest get trampled, no longer would our government put money above the well being of its people. The environment would be a priority. A healthier lifestyle (physically and mentally) would be inevitable.

We need to move away from a love of money, and make an effort to instead focus on the important things: our time, our relationships, our health, our planet. As long as money remains our god, and competition remains our method, we'll only continue to make things worse. We need to find a way to work out a system based on cooperation and compassion. Our government needs to take care of us, all of us, from the working poor to the sick to the old, not just take care of the wealthiest and most powerful people in our country.