Myths of rich and poor: The American dream... and less[1]

June 19, 2015. The “American dream” means building a better life for your children. Is the dream realistic in the twenty-first century? A 2000 Federal Reserve Bank study looked at Americans and their dreams. Based on their research, the authors posed the following statements about the American dream. Answer each question: True or false?

1. Americans’ living standards have been falling since the early 1970s.

2. The rich are getting rich and the poor are getting poorer. Most of us are getting nowhere.

3. Life is getting harder. We’re working more and there’s never enough time to enjoy life.

4. Both adults have to work these days to maintain a family’s standard of living.

5. Because Americans’ incomes are falling; the U.S. is no longer the land of opportunity, particularly for the less educated.

6. Despite decades of affirmative action, women and minorities are falling behind.

7. The United States, once the world’s undisputed leader, is falling behind in the race for economic supremacy, passed up by the world’s fast-growing nations.

8. Employment prospects are bleak because good jobs are being destroyed as companies lay off workers to boost profits and splurge on executive pay.

9. American workers are no longer as productive as they once were.

10. As companies ship our high-paying manufacturing jobs overseas, the United States is left with inferior service jobs, condemning the country to become a nation of “hamburger flippers.”

11. The current generation of children may be the first to not to live as well as their parents.

12. America’s economic fortunes will erode further because the country isn’t fit to compete in the high-technology world of the future.

The authors of the study concluded that while most Americans agree with these statements, based on economic evidence, every one of these statements is false. What explains the pessimism of Americans in 2000? The authors concluded that while incomes, progress and wealth continued, expectations rose even faster. We have more but take more for granted and envy those who have even more. We have strongly held beliefs, but the facts tend to disprove them.

Politics and the mainstream media explain most of the pessimism. Politicians often succeed by pointing out 'problems' that they will solve with their election. This is especially true of leftist politicians, although even politicians on the right will promise much of the same. The difference is that the right promises to help you to fix the problems yourself, especially those problems created by the excesses of the left, while politicians on the left promise to have the government solve your problem, without acknowledging the this usually means using tax money to transfer wealth special interest groups, especially those groups that claim to be 'marginalized,' or have been identified as marginalized by the Left.

Climate change is a good example of the Left claiming, "I'm from the government and I am here to help you," often by creating an exaggerated, unrealistic or possibly non-existent problem that only the efforts of a large, powerful, munificent government. The fundamental flaw in this thinking is that while claiming that there are 'bad actors' creating these problems for people, the politicians ignore their own 'bad actions,' and assume that they know best, or at least better than you do. In 2021, the Left also makes disingenuous claims to authority, expertise and 'science,' while they actually are playing politics, reacting to feelings and creating additional, faux 'rights' that justify government intervention. The infamous 'tragedy of the commons' is another example, where the traditional left argument is that the commons illustrates the abuse of a public good (by the public, no less) when, in fact, the issue is one of ignoring the importance of private ownership of and responsibility for sustainable practices on the 'commons.' As to climate 'science' silliness, Matt Ridley lays out the problem quite adroitly. See his article, below.

The Climate Wars’ Damage to Science – Quadrant Online.pdf

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[1] W. Michael Cox and Robert Alm. Myths of rich and poor. New York: Basic Books, 2000. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0465047831/qid=1106262291/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-7034474-7818517?v=glance&s=books&n=507846