The Great American Dream is just that - a "Dream"!

The system of inequality in the US of A is perpetuated by the belief that if you work hard enough -and are smart enough - you might become one of the Top 1% or Top 5%.

George Carlin aptly said "The American Dream" is just that - a "Dream" because you have to be asleep to believe it. Meanwhile - we all need to wake up to reality.

Here are the facts:

• 83 percent of all U.S. Stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.

• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.

• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.

• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.

• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10000 saved up for retirement.

• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.

• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.

• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. Households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.

• For the first time in U.S. History banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.

• In 1950 the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000 that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to 1..

• As of 2007 the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.

• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.

• While millions of Americans are unemployed and the national debt is soaring it seems top financial executives are far from feeling the pinch. A recent Wall Street Journal survey estimates they'll receive a staggering $144 billion dollars in compensation and benefits this year. This equals to the entire 2008 stimulus package!

• The top 1 percent of U.S. Households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.

• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs which are often very low paying.

• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.

• Despite the financial crisis the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009!

• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

Dream on! Never mind if most are living a horrible nightmare!

Happy Holidays!



reply to post by OrionHunterX


Looks like it's all working as planned..

Time to take the dream back I say....

S&F for them sickening facts..

reply to post by OrionHunterX


I have made remarks about the American Dream for many years. Things like, if everybody is able to go to colleges and universities and gain PHD degrees, then there will be PHD's flipping burgers in McDonalds restaurants.

My mom and dad probably got to be part of a generation of people who most enjoyed the American Dream.

They were the youngsters of the Great Depression. WWII and it's aftermath spurred them on. Cool stuff! They did really good!

Aw, but, my mom's American Dream is now that she once had greatness, talent, access to large amounts of money, if she wanted it and used it wisely. She's laying in bed in a nursing home. Wondering WTF???

My dad.........Yeah, man, a member of the greatest generation. Served in the navy during WWII. Helped defeat them there evil Nazis and Japs.

He got out of the navy once the war ended, got some of that GI Bill schooling, went on to much greater things!

A couple years ago he was flush!! Big money investments, really nice pension for 37 years working at the same giant corporation.

Today? His dream is not destroyed. But he understands how his dream no longer can be the dream of millions of country raised folks like him. My pop never made it past the 8th grade!! Me? 8 years of college and a few degrees.

Will I ever have the many years of belief in economic security that Pop had? Not hardly.

Do I whine about it? Oh, no! That's not in my DNA! But I'll discuss it all, and all the possibilities of how this all came to be, and how we might be able to reverse this trend.

But my Pop? I don't think he could take another 10 years of this crap. I think that might be a shock to him. He knows it's coming, but he doesn't really think it will affect him. Probably won't. He's 86 years old.

Thanks for sharing , you just tell the point , i hope this can be seen by the decision maker in the government , maybe it is not too late to change something.

Couple of more years and the whole American nation will be MYTH; the American dream is just an acceptable term since WW2.

Thanks for posting this.

Some people make their dream a reality while others are less fortunate, why is that??

Have any of you made your dream a reality?? If not...what kept you from living your dream??

Originally posted by topdog30
Have any of you made your dream a reality?? If not...what kept you from living your dream??

Spot on! Most just want to sit on their asses and wait for Santa to drop the goodies! I think we've taken too much for granted.

There's only one shortcut to success - HARD WORK!