Thread 82995070

I've been hearing people bitching for a long time about how the American dream is dying. But from what I can gather, to most people, the "American Dream" just means having enough money to hyper consoom. Am I wrong?

back then it meant sustaining a family. now sustaining a family has the sociopolitical undercurrents of consooming guiding it
>captcha: ARRR42

>>82995070 (OP)
https://youtu.be/h3nyWQ_aLBo?si=6aI8CFJHUGFDcPoX

>>82995070 (OP)
The american dream has become so unachievable that people believe in an inferior made up version to cope.

the american dream is having a boring wife with boring children and a boring dog in a boring neighborhood doing boring faggot cookouts with your boring neighbors in a boring ass white picket fence community and basically nothing ever happens forever except you buy new product
at least thats what the american propaganda posters during the cold war seemed to convey

>>82995087
A lot of it just feels like unsustainable entitlement. Like why do young people feel entitled to own a single-family home? They're a terrible way to structure society.

>>82995122
no that's what propaganda has led you to believe

>>82995130
you are spiritually brown and should go back to mexico or wherever

"American Dream" is a dumb euphemism for having enough money to live well and for your children to have good lives. That's it.

Prior to 1933, you worked for whatever they decided to pay you. If the going rate for a ton of coal was 11c then you mined a ton of coal for 11c. If you didn't like it they had a guy who would shoot you and give your mining pick to the next desperate loser. That was life for everyone for 400 years during and after the industrial revolution.

A certain type of American (don't look it up) said fuck that noise, protested, fought, and died so everyone could have a minimum wage, vacation days, and unemployment benefits. They won and we got it all then experienced the most insane boost a country ever had in the history of humanity. IQs went up 20 points, heights went up 3 inches, food poisoning fatalities dropped to almost nothing. Crime went down by 50%. We had scientists, engineers, and musicians the like that no one ever saw before or since. We went to the cocksucking moon just for fun, just to look the fuck around and wave back at Earth.

Now you're lucky if you can afford to live indoors and eat with one job. A family? Maybe a millionaire can start a family. Nobody cares that life is this way and nobody remembers why it wasn't like this for their parents and grandparents. People just cross their fingers and vote for bank-backed politician X and hope he brings back the dream (he won't, don't look up who got the dream in the first place). You will have less and less until you're back at the bottom of that mine hauling coal for pennies.

>>82995130
Lol, I get what you mean but it's just what they think is needed to feel at peace, not worrying about where to sleep when your contract ends in 6 months.
I wouldnt mind staying in a big house with extended family but it's just not an option for many. Especially since rent culture is pushed so heavily.

>>82995145
I'm a white Connecticutter.
>>82995171
I've been able to support my wife and two kids on one salary for 4 years now. And we bought a house this year. It didn't seem very tough to manage. We just live within our means.

>>82995194
>I've been able to support my wife and two kids on one salary for 4 years now. And we bought a house this year. It didn't seem very tough to manage. We just live within our means.
the first "real" job I had one of the managers would complain to anyone who would listen how he was always short of money. Him and his wife both made well into the six figures, also with two kids, it's just they blew it as soon as they got it. He had a big pile of debt to boot, which he also complained about. He seemed to think this was just normal, and he thought I was somewhere between deprived and insane that I packed my own lunch, drove a 13yo car, and hadn't moved out of my parents house the second I had a W-2 to show to a landlord.

>>82995194
>Minimum wage Connecticut: $16.35
>Average rent in Connecticut: $2000 (2 bed. apt.)

You have to work 3 weeks just to pay rent. Leaving the last week's $650 (not factoring state and local taxes) to feed 4 people. Yeah, doable with SNAP and buying clothes at the thrift store.

80 years ago you would have been able to easily afford a house, a car, a vacation, and college tuition for both of your children. Do you want that or do you like bragging on anonymous forums how you "live within your means" (aka being broke as shit and stoic about it)?

>>82995194
Nobody can live within their means now because the economy and job market are so shit that that means living a far worse life than your parents and grandparents did.

>>82995250
Our grandparents did none of this and they were still able to afford things

>>82995130
>why do you young people want a home they can get married and have kids of their own in

Gee I dunno

>>82995340
Erm, you want to pursue base biological instincts? Crass. No housing for thee.

>>82995070 (OP)
>Am I wrong?
Yes. The actual "American Dream" is being able to leave the country and stay gone. It surprises me how few people have a functioning passport in this country. People just hyper-consume to ignore this reality.

>>82995359
Wanted to reply but your pic distracted me anyway the commanders game is on in a bit so cya

>>82995378
>supporting the team that is unironically referred to as "the Washington Commies"
You know I'm right.

>>82995250
Yea. This is what I'm saying. I think most people who bitch about not being able to attain the American dream are bad with money. My sister is like this but spends hundreds a week on weed and vidya.
>>82995305
Who's working min wage and living on their own in a 2 bedroom apartment?
>>82995306
I seem to be living a much better life than my grandparents and parents did...
>>82995340
You don't need a massive single-family home to raise a family, believe it or not. I lived in an apartment when my first was born, and then a townhouse when number two came around.
>>82995359
Where the hell would I want to move to? Europeans are autistic. Rest of the world sucks. My family is all in the USA.

>>82995500
>My sister is like this but spends hundreds a week on weed and vidya.
obviously fake, girls don't play vidya

>>82995517
Well, she is trans if it matters

>>82995517
She's "engaged" to a vidya addict so that's where it comes from.
>>82995529
Nice try pretending to be me.

>>82995529
smdh these looney troons invading gaming...

>>82995500
Apartments are not good for raising kids

>>82995500
>Where the hell would I want to move to?
Oh you know. Vietnam, Singapore (if you can afford it), Thailand, south Korea, Bhutan, etc. I would say Japan, but they're on an anti-immigrant thing right now.
>despite making up roughly 3% of the total population, immigrants are expected to be blamed for 90% of Japan's problems
>we can ignore that most of those problems have been persistent since the 1990s, as it is convenient to do so
Just gotta get out there, Anon; don't grow old and die here when there's a whole world out there.

>>82995500
I wasn't raised in an apartment, so I'd never do that to my own kids.

>>82995589
Says fucking who? Retarded antisocial suburbanoids who can't imagine living around other people?
>>82995601
>Vietnam
Shithole
>Singapore
Authoritarian
>Thailand
Gay
>South Korea
Dying country
>Bhutan
Literally doesn't allow immigration.

Also, why move my family away from everyone and everything we know and love?
>>82995602
That's fucking retarded. I was circumcised but I didn't circumcise my boys. Your kids' experiences don't need to mirror your own.

>>82995642
>has an excuse for everywhere else
Sounds like you're not even trying, Anon. That's ok though; you're allowing for parochial chauvinism to cause you to live and die in an 'actual' shithole, one that's been bought, paid for, and stripped for parts by private investors (equity).
>but muh family
Either they come with you, or they stay behind; don't let them weight you down.

People can't even consume anymore though. Consumer spending has dropped off a cliff.

>>82995803
Oh, we're still consooming, it's just,
>consoom now
>pay later (actually never)
I'm curious as to what December 25th is going to look like this year.

>>82995686
Oh okay I'll just abandon my wife, kids, and parents to go life my "best life" in a third world shithole. Sounds great, faggot.
>>82995803
People consoom but go in massive debt.m

>>82995070 (OP)
The american dream means having a mcmansion near the city you work which most people are benning to be unable to afford even if theyve been int he workforce for a while because the middle class is shrinking.
Sometimes it might seem like they own the house but its just a bunch of dudes in the top 1% renting out zillions of houses across the country.

>>82995070 (OP)
American dream meant being some poor immigrant from Bumfuckia and scrounging pennies so you could be a 65 year old grandpa with a yacht, playboy glasses, and an entourage of hookers

>>82995995
>Sounds great, faggot.
Well then, enjoy the myopic, mediocre, uneventful, and generally unremarkable rest of your existence in the heart of a dying empire run by pedos and billionaire sociopaths.

Feggit.

>>82996163
I live in a walkable town and make $130k teaching a couple times a week and writing/researching whatever the hell I want. I think I'll be fine.