Is the American dream dead?

Gloxina

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life is boring as all shyt.

POV: 9–5, 2 weeks vacation with no one to do it with, dry dm, burden, regret & disappointment, dirt nap
There’s definitely a way to make it more enjoyable than that, but it requires seeing this system/matrix for what it is. You have to plan your life backwards. Start with your goal and determine what you need to do to get there.

My uncle said that when he was 18/19 he saw what it was and said “not me”. Retired @50 and has been traveling and having fun everyday since.

I have an aunt who did the same. Retired at 50 and spends her time volunteering, tutoring kids in her church in math and the sciences, on various boards, etc.

Most of my elders retired well because they realized what they’d have to do to live well and retire well. The trick is you need to get kids on the path early so that it’s a slow and steady rise to the top, or be prepared to overhaul your life and go HARD in your 30s to be able to retire comfortably within 30yrs.


It’s totally doable, but do you have a plan and the discipline to get there?

Essentially, you have to be a go-getter. We’re getting to the point where you can’t just get any ol job and just “make it work”/“figure it out”.

That’s the reason you see other communities that are so serious about getting their kids in STEM/finance/healthcare careers.

Your kid with the accounting, nursing, engineering degree ain’t knocking on your door at 34 to come back home unless they are mismanaging their money or experiencing a true emergency.
Hell, your kid who is a plumber, electrician or truck driver probably isn’t calling you for help either. 🤷🏾‍♀️
 

Belize King

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In my opinion, the American Dream is the ability to move up the social-economic ladder. Remember, there are probably 5-6 billion people who can’t move up in their own country.

In America you can earn 100K+ with no degree. Now the cost of living may be high, but name 20 countries where it’s easy to move to a top 10% earner without giving 50% back to govt.
 

Vandelay

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This is a good take.

I used to think you’re part of the basement dwelling & shift-working peasants a la Langley rats wannabe brigade, who always want to bully everyone into ‘Murikkka is the greatest & is always right’ perspective. However, after reading some of your takes on certain topics - you’re more balanced than I initially thought albeit still pro-American (which is understandable).

That said, what do you think went wrong from the 80s to 2008? (I’ve got my theory).
And I'm still not sure if you are apart of the pro-Russia disinformation bot farm coalition, but that argument isn't productive so I won't engage it.

So now that we got that out the way.

I'm always gonna be pro-America; at least the concept of it. I live here. Imma call their fukk shyt out historically and currently, but I believe the US has the best framework and circumstances to move into the future equitably, the country just isn't living up to it. It did at one point for white people, but it stood on the shoulders of other people to do it. The irony is the system has even screwed "white" people over at this point and many of them are too uninformed, disengaged and xenophobic, often willfully to do anything about it.

Personally, I've lived a bunch of different lives, met a bunch of people in all walks of my life. Arguably about to cross into my 4th career and I'm not even 40 yet. I've had to work absurdly hard to get any level of success, so I'm not oblivious to what reality is. But my perspective is nuanced because I've been around so many different kinds of people. I've run with people who done mad illegal shyt, I got fam that's career criminals and I have family that are millionaires. I've had someone in the KKK actually pull a knife on me and threaten to stab me. I've also unexpected people take me under their wing. My step pop was as pro-America as could be, got hype as shyt on 4th of July and put flags and shyt all over his work van, but dude was probably the most well read person I've ever known on communism, socialism, capitalism, black nationalism, and introduced me to all of that at 12. He understood that you can support the country while criticizing it too, and that's what I do.

It's easy to point the finger at Reagan. He's just a figurehead; dude was an actor, he was never cunning enough to orchestrate the current system we have, he just had to be the spokesperson, where his acting could come in handy. It predates him by quite a bit in my opinion. It's really not one person or entity, it's an environment that creates the system we have today. It's the type of capitalism we have that's doing it. I'm pro-capitalist too, but I don't think we have the correct political or tax system in place to control it. And if I had to point to a single entity; the consulting firm Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly. They lobbied for so many industries and put so many politicians in place that everything has deconstructed itself into the state we have now.
 
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