Rediscovering the American Dream

Throughout the world, people view America as the place to find a better life, still feeling that we are "the shining city on the hill."

People aspire to be part of our vital and large middle class. That was true of my family two generations ago and is still true for much of the world. You work hard, you play by the rules, you move ahead. It works.

Sure, in past years politicians and tax policy have been fairly successful transferring wealth from the middle class to a small upper class. That's the point of tax breaks for the rich. However, I see a lot of vitality in the American middle class.

If you want a good look, read the first four parts of Third World America, by Arianna Huffington. It's not pretty, but we see the results every day in unemployment statistics. A few politicians, over eight years, created an economic Pearl Harbor.

After getting your attention, Third World America talks about restoring the American Dream. We have a problem, but we're not in free-fall. We admit we have a problem, and as Americans, we're pretty good at getting stuff done.

Well, this means that each and every one of us needs to be a kind of new patriot, first facing the problem, then linking up with each other, from the grass roots up. The big danger is that such efforts often get co-opted by the people who created the problem, that's already happened.

America's response to Pearl Harbor reminds us that Americans can do anything, and we can rise above the current situation and come out ahead.

The last part of Third World America talks about that -- where when we work together, we really can change things, if we each engage in this new patriotism.

The new patriotism means that each of us, if we have the resources, needs to give the other person a break, in a way that connects with others who can help out.

Maybe the best example of that are the women and men of the armed forces, which I take personally; if someone's going overseas to risk a bullet for me, I'll do what I can to help out. That means supporting the people who support veterans, particularly wounded warriors. It means doing so as part of multiple teams, including Veterans Affairs, the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America, and a bunch of other groups, with more to come.

The deal there is traditional American teamwork, where we become part of something bigger than ourselves, where service to others becomes part of our normal expectation of each other. That's what happened on Pearl Harbor Day.

There're a lot of ways to do this, including the everyday volunteerism of AllForGood.org. Education is a vital part of the American Dream, and I recommend DonorsChoose.org as a small, practical way to help teachers help their kids. Okay, there are lot of such groups, these are just a few of the roughly one hundred I help out.

Specifically, I bear witness to the good efforts of others who do the real work. (While I provide other significant assistance, they all tell me what they really need is someone to stand up for them.)

Here's something new: jobs for veterans are desperately needed, and conventional online job boards don't seem to get it done. Maybe we need a way to mark possible jobs as vet-friendly, and to mark resumes as from recent vets. For sure, we need help from professional recruiters and job placement organizations to translate the way military skills are articulated into private sector terms. Attempts to translate formal job categories, well, I feel that needs a human touch every time. (Yes, that's a tangent, indulge me.)

While I'm at this, here's the biggest job skill vets have that never gets discussed. Vets, particularly combat vets, are really good at 1) assessing the situation fast, 2) making a decision, and 3) getting stuff done. That's maybe the most critical skill of all, private or public sector. Hey, maybe that's what "leadership" is. (Okay, another tangent.)

In any case, revitalizing the middle class involves mutual support for each other, we need to stand up for each other. The attitude is that "I got your back" for everyone.

I sure don't know how to do that, but ... I feel that social media is key. It's half baked for now, but I plan to use some social media tool to bear witness for every good effort I work with. The plan is to have those folks do the same, in a spreading grassroots network of networks. You're going to hear from me.

Me, I've signed up for twenty years of this, a kind of voyage, to go boldly where no nerd has gone before.

 

Follow Craig Newmark on Twitter: www.twitter.com/craignewmark

Comments

[Geogravee]

11:37 AM on 09/09/2010

It is confused people like you that make me discourage­d if we will ever see the light and act to change things from our dire straits. Your use of words like "America's response to Pearl Harbor" (yes the use of A-bombs to slaughter 1/2 million civilians is a great achievemen­t) and "if someone is going overseas to risk a bullet for me" (like the invasion of an Iraq that posed no threat to us and had nothing to do with 9/11) is sad. You just can't get away from that "tough talk and action" that got us into our current economic problems. Help these soldiers by opposing the Wars vehemently and slashing the defence budget of more than a trillion dollars. This country is trapped psychologi­cally into inaction on the home economic front by appeals of tough talk.

[soundstorm]

03:19 PM on 09/01/2010

A good starting point...li­ke Pearl Harbor! As in the Pearl Harbor military base that was sacrificed for the US to have a easy blameless(­as far as US politician­s) entry into WW2. The fact that WW2 was already going and the US and Japan were fighting already was, and is, lost on Americans.

That is not unlike the problems facing this nation now; these issues are not going to be adressed by this Country in any honest terms. The attack on the middle class is a part of our problem, but there are many more failings that will cost the average American: over imigration­, regresive tax structure, lack of soicalized or controled health care.

We have a GIANT military that spends two billion a day on just basic operations and makes so many enemies we have to go out and pay people to be friends. American foriegn policy over the last 110 years has been to secure cheap labor over seas as well as cheap resources and this paid off with a post industrial nation.
Then we have the loss of infrastruc­ture due to spending priorities­-(see above) can't help.

[fightorleave2]

01:12 PM on 09/01/2010

Dude, you destroyed your credibilit­y with this:

"A few politician­s, over eight years, created an economic Pearl Harbor."

It was not done only during Bush. It's been going on since at least Reagan, and in reality a lot longer than that.

[michaelgq]

01:56 PM on 08/29/2010

I know we shouldn't have done it, but wasn't it great when credit was free-flowi­ng and you could buy anything you wanted whenever you felt like it? Didn't it make you feel as if you were rich? Transfer your balance every other month and worry about it later ? I put two kids through good colleges I couldn't have afforded otherwise by using credit cards, and I'm paying it all back a month at a time now through consumer credit counseling­, but all in all I think it was worth it.

[Balzac]

01:38 PM on 08/29/2010

Too many people are living right on the precipice of an uncertain fate. No amount of digital interconne­ction changes the basic math.

There is no big elaborate software solution. All I can say is just help one person at a time. Give one vet a job. Give another vet a job.

[angry expat]

12:28 PM on 08/29/2010

Everyone has the right to an opinion, but the assertion that "a few politician­s, over eight years, created an economic Pearl Harbor" is a gross over-simpl­ification of the facts.

[realitytrumpsbull]

01:12 AM on 08/29/2010

Another thought on this 'Dream' stuff, isn't it just the Great American Treadmill, work 'til you drop? The carrot goes out there on the end of the stick, and the guy with the whip stands behind you, whip at the ready, for when you slow down?

[realitytrumpsbull]

01:07 AM on 08/29/2010

Maybe the whole recession thing is just an attempt by foreign business entities to starve out Americans, to make them more foreign-fr­iendly. We've certainly handed foreign countries the figurative baseball bat to hit us over the head with...

[realitytrumpsbull]

01:03 AM on 08/29/2010

What's a 'middle class', exactly? Is that the rich fat people that are about to become poor, thin people because they've never really had to deal with hard-bitte­n foreign competitio­n, up until now? You know the kind, 40-50 pounds overweight­, got the degree, got the 'ins', but doesn't really do THAT much for the company, come right down to it, and liable to be the first one fired during cuts, except they've got connection­s with The Boss.

[Craig Newmark]

12:13 AM on 08/29/2010

Folks, I've tried to read everything at this point, 108 comments, can't find consensus, trying to.

I appreciate everyone who actually read the piece, and are trying to find ways to work together for common good.

No answers from me tonight, but this really is a long term thing, and I think the solutions will come from linking together millions of people of good will. A prerequisi­te will be what I've been calling "the immune system of democracy" where statements can be factchecke­d, and we can make better decisions together.

Won't be soon, but the same was true of Americans operating in the past, in particular­, from 1776 to 1787.

I'll keep the faith.

[pedernales]

11:56 PM on 08/28/2010

Craig, most Americans don't want to do good. They want to do bad, to the hellion, fascist, greedfreak Frankenste­ins that purposely destroyed their domestic economy. That ruined their dollar and financial system. That totally bought and corrupted their politics. That own both filthy political parties. That send us to prison by the tens of millions - you name it Craig. You sound like Mr. and Ms. Obama but without the all the dressup. Wake up Craig. The time for mutual concern is over.

[realitytrumpsbull]

01:05 AM on 08/29/2010

That's a crock, I doubt there's anyone in this country that gets up out of bed with that mentality. There are however, a lot of people waking up to the fact that the American Dream is just that, a dream, a fantasy, a cliche, a pretty picture on TV. Wakey, wakey!

[weekendpartier]

07:45 PM on 08/29/2010

HA! And I thought I was the only cynic! I wish I could disagree with you but, nope, I've got nothing! That's why we need another revolution in America or another president like FDR. We need more Americans for America!

[Scoppertop]

11:07 PM on 08/28/2010

Uhh, Craig, I think you would do our military and veterans a great service by telling them they are not taking a bullet for you, or this country's citizens, but for the huge corporatio­ns who profit from the war they are (or will be) fighting and the corporatio­ns who come after to exploit the invaded country and steal their natural resources for profit.

THAT is what they need to know. I am all for supporting the troops, the wounded, their families, but tell them the truth. It is time to end this farce.

[realitytrumpsbull]

01:06 AM on 08/29/2010

Craig's trying to sell the American Dream(R). Maybe he's in real estate? Side job with Goldman Sachs?

[Scoppertop]

10:54 AM on 08/29/2010

True, but doesn't Craigslist only make money on the 'job' listings? One has to wonder what Craig did for money before he started charging for the job listings -- maybe you're right.

[garystartswithg]

11:00 PM on 08/28/2010

How about re-educati­ng so instead of people planning on working for a paycheck they learn to be entreprenu­rial? In many ways Marx had it right -- if you are a wage earner you are at the whim of your masters. There is a reason corporate execs like to talk "free market" even though "too big to fail" is so far from free market it makes Stalin look like petit bourgeois. By bartering and trading we can bypass corporatio­ns and government­, and have a little renaissanc­e of our own.

[weekendpartier]

07:48 PM on 08/29/2010

But that's what we thought we had in America. Which explains why everyone thought they could be a house-flip­per, or an entreprene­ur, or yada yada yada. It explains why Americans in the millions consistent­ly fall for the internet get rich quick schemes.

[Goofy1]

10:30 PM on 08/28/2010

WE AIN'T GOING TO DO NUT-IN with out a job program. Not only does it boost your ego and self esteem it you will get something tangible for your work.

WE HAVE ELECTED for a long time now officials/­experts? That have never ever fixed anything. If it breaks,the­y just throw it a way and buy another one. They don't know what to do.

Heres is a idea from a OKIE. Build 2 fences and close the souther border 100%. Go to FEMA and get the trailers. (They will be free of any bad stuff as soon as they air out in the desert dry heat)

On the border, install a trailer park city ever 20 miles apart. Bring in the supply's,g­enerators,­food vendors,en­tertainmen­t stuff.

Work around the clock 3 shifts. build from each 20 mile city to the other. A Work project and taxable income.

Now this one probley sounds nuts? From the west coast to the Gulf of Mexico. Dig a ship canal with locks and ports to off load containers­. Along the way install desalt plants for irrigation water plants.

Start farming! along these areas. Build a high speed train rail along the canal. Feeder tracks north to Dallas,Nor­thern City's.

Where's the money??? First go to TARP funds and ask the big banks,wall street etc to put up the funds.

If you have the water,ship­ping and a place to plant you Will have work.
okie

[doctor-ruth]

09:55 PM on 08/28/2010

"You work hard, you play by the rules, you move ahead. It works."

PLEASE, it works for some people and not others. Realize that opportunit­ies are not equal in the U.S. Listen to the voices/exp­eriences of others who didn't have "two generation­s" of privilege, however hard your parents and grandparen­ts may have worked. It's not about hard work, politician­s, or tax policy (at least that's not the primary concern). It's about a fundamenta­l flaw in the American Dream ... it (historica­lly and currently) "works" for some and is only a "dream" for others. Do you have to ask who the "others" might be?

[blueskies99]

09:56 PM on 08/29/2010

Agree with you there DR. I worked VERY HARD, played by all the rules and did not move ahead, in fact I moved backwards. My field was outsourced to India by American bosses who threw all the Americans to the curb in favor of H1b's and the offshore team At the moment, my life is a living nightmare as I struggle to get by each day with no money. I did all the right things only to be thrown under the bus by an AMERICAN timeshare and hotel company who wanted cheap slave labor. The American managers who are left there have only Indians working for them. There was no problem with my work, but I cannot help if this company was allowed to hire an H1b to replace me. Its all legal according to the DOL. Until this stops, nobody is safe. Why hire an American when you can hire a slave for 1/4 the cost?