By Henry Briggs
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There’s been a lot of discussion of the American Dream recently.
It started from Tom’s disarmingly simple concept: “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It was and is the ultimate celebration of the Individual.
Over the years it has somehow morphed into every American being born, not just equal, but healthy, smart and talented, educated at an Ivy League level, becoming Goldman-Sachs rich, marrying a spouse who looks like a movie star and acts like a saint, and giving birth to equally perfect kids, who grow up to do even better than their parents....
Oops!! How do we do better than the last generation if they’ve had it all?
So maybe the American Dream should be only for those who start with less... maybe we take away from those who have already achieved it. For example, even though their riches have been taxed two or three times already (when they earned it, when they invested it and reaped more earnings, when they bought more things with it), maybe, when they die, we should take a huge chunk of it.
Just to make sure other kids have a crack at the American Dream, too.
Yeah, and as a payback for doing so much better than the rest of us – after all we were created equal too, weren’t we?
But wait! The American Dream includes leaving our kids in better shape than we were. Hmmm... a conundrum.
For Rep. Boehner, that means going from mopping floors in a cheap bar to Speaker of the House. And leading the fight to rescind the aforementioned Estate Tax, as well as other financial impediments to his constituents’ American Dream. For Obama, it means climbing from the racial bottom to the political top and trying to provide better upward paths for others who are held back by poverty, race or other pre-conditions. He’d like to grease the skids of those paths with some of the money Boehner and his pals want to keep.
Oops! Oops! A second conundrum: one person’s American Dream bashes into another’s.
Then, of course, we have the American Dreams of unions who would like to insure high pay and low effort clashing with management who would like the opposite. We have some financial mavens making billions from creating worldwide economic collapse versus the ruined who would love to make those entrepreneurs trade places – using cars for shelter and stamps for food.
We have good schools in good neighborhoods and bad schools in bad neighborhoods, good medical care for those with good jobs and ER-care for those without, and honest citizens unknowingly electing corrupt politicians, etc....
What the ...!!??
The American Dream has become ensnared in the clash between Capitalism and Democracy: Capitalism being economic survival of the fittest and elimination of the weak; American Democracy being rule by the majority, with protection for the minority.
Oops yet again! The American Conundrum!
Of course, George, Ben, John, James et al. understood the delicate nature of the government that creates the Dream. They used the metaphor of a three-legged stool for a design based on three equally strong branches: Legislative, Judicial. Executive. The weakening of just one would bring collapse. It was, and remains, pure genius.
With one caveat: the branches aren’t wood or steel; they’re dynamic. If one grows too strong, it imperils the whole system. American Democracy depends on strong people of good conscience to maintain equality among the three.
The same metaphor underpins the American Dream. It, too, is a three-legged creation, made strong by equal respect for Individualism, Capitalism and Democracy.
As with American Democracy itself, the solution to the American Conundrum is strong people of good conscience working hard to keep each leg equally strong.
View and purchase photos
There’s been a lot of discussion of the American Dream recently.
It started from Tom’s disarmingly simple concept: “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It was and is the ultimate celebration of the Individual.
Over the years it has somehow morphed into every American being born, not just equal, but healthy, smart and talented, educated at an Ivy League level, becoming Goldman-Sachs rich, marrying a spouse who looks like a movie star and acts like a saint, and giving birth to equally perfect kids, who grow up to do even better than their parents....
Oops!! How do we do better than the last generation if they’ve had it all?
So maybe the American Dream should be only for those who start with less... maybe we take away from those who have already achieved it. For example, even though their riches have been taxed two or three times already (when they earned it, when they invested it and reaped more earnings, when they bought more things with it), maybe, when they die, we should take a huge chunk of it.
Just to make sure other kids have a crack at the American Dream, too.
Yeah, and as a payback for doing so much better than the rest of us – after all we were created equal too, weren’t we?
But wait! The American Dream includes leaving our kids in better shape than we were. Hmmm... a conundrum.
For Rep. Boehner, that means going from mopping floors in a cheap bar to Speaker of the House. And leading the fight to rescind the aforementioned Estate Tax, as well as other financial impediments to his constituents’ American Dream. For Obama, it means climbing from the racial bottom to the political top and trying to provide better upward paths for others who are held back by poverty, race or other pre-conditions. He’d like to grease the skids of those paths with some of the money Boehner and his pals want to keep.
Oops! Oops! A second conundrum: one person’s American Dream bashes into another’s.
Then, of course, we have the American Dreams of unions who would like to insure high pay and low effort clashing with management who would like the opposite. We have some financial mavens making billions from creating worldwide economic collapse versus the ruined who would love to make those entrepreneurs trade places – using cars for shelter and stamps for food.
We have good schools in good neighborhoods and bad schools in bad neighborhoods, good medical care for those with good jobs and ER-care for those without, and honest citizens unknowingly electing corrupt politicians, etc....
What the ...!!??
The American Dream has become ensnared in the clash between Capitalism and Democracy: Capitalism being economic survival of the fittest and elimination of the weak; American Democracy being rule by the majority, with protection for the minority.
Oops yet again! The American Conundrum!
Of course, George, Ben, John, James et al. understood the delicate nature of the government that creates the Dream. They used the metaphor of a three-legged stool for a design based on three equally strong branches: Legislative, Judicial. Executive. The weakening of just one would bring collapse. It was, and remains, pure genius.
With one caveat: the branches aren’t wood or steel; they’re dynamic. If one grows too strong, it imperils the whole system. American Democracy depends on strong people of good conscience to maintain equality among the three.
The same metaphor underpins the American Dream. It, too, is a three-legged creation, made strong by equal respect for Individualism, Capitalism and Democracy.
As with American Democracy itself, the solution to the American Conundrum is strong people of good conscience working hard to keep each leg equally strong.
