Young whites' are losing faith in the American Dream

GREED!

No longer community or nation do the elite of society believe in and practice.


It’s all SELF!

Get the money at all cost and worry later about the causalities


Of course the American dream is dead there’s no longer anything to look up to with respect

With love

Or aspiration


They’ve made it all about self and they lie and claim this is freedom

The American dream has turned into a nightmare.

I learned a long time ago that the old adages didn't apply today. If I work hard, do the right thing and be diligent, and expect an external reward for it, I'll likely be disappointed. But if I do it all because it's the right thing to do, my reward is in the knowledge that I have chosen right over wrong. In my mind. And that's pretty much where I live. So, that's what matters.

There is the upside. While the physical world is under much stress, we who are disappointed can turn inward. We can find our peace and happiness from within ourselves. The power is within me to be happy, regardless of the goings on in the upside-down world. Actually, that side-show interest me less and less. My efforts to survive in this world have taken a toll on my family, and our health, but I try to keep my mind on the spiritual. While I struggle to pay bills, I also keep reading spiritual books and meditate on the WORD that is revealed to me.

Yes, the system is flawed. However, the real issue is not the flaws of the system, but rather the flaws of human nature. No system can correct the person who isn't willing to be correct. Therefore, I do my duty to self correct, to change my beliefs, attitude and behavior to reflect the thought system of heaven, not this world of Fear and Attack. In this this world the reward is only suffering and death. If that is all there was, this so-called "life" would be utterly meaningless.

Thankfully, this is all just an illusion. From my spiritual perspective, what is not real (created by God), does not exist. Yes, we see the world we see, but is it real? Will it pass away? Yes it will. Okay, then, how REAL is it? If you take the persective that you are an eternal creature, then we are just passing through this world. It is not our home, is a place of much difficulty and strife, but it is a place where we refine our character. In the end, the is the only value of living in hell, so that we can choose to relinquish it claim on us. We we let it go, by our own freewill, then we are free. Then the Light of heaven is opened to us and we can walk into that Light without Fear. Getting there is what Life is all about--IMHO.

originally posted by: GoShredAK
Literally headed for a meeting with some oilfield big wig....

Waiting to hear back from some corrections facilities. These are my best opportunities at success.

I would much rather be self sufficient and help bring the system down but have a beautiful family to feed.

So ya, pretty screwed but willing to make it work.

I want to be honorable and struggle, but may one day face a choice where I have to do what I have to do to climb the ladder.

29 year old, mutt, optimistic about life, pessimistic about the "American dream".....

Better go shave........

Great OP

Awesome post by benevolent heretic.....

Peace.

I'm back from that.......the oilfield is "drying up like a fart", their words lol. Even to get in I would need to drop at the very least $220 on certifications.

Good, I have disdain for the oilfield, meanwhile my jobs of preference (trooper, CO, EMT, or firefighter) are hiring so I won't rest until I obtain one.

That class is only $70.

Only Sharing to provide real time evidence of a young persons difficulties of finding a job these days. A lot of us are struggling.

originally posted by: GoShredAK

I'm back from that.......the oilfield is "drying up like a fart", their words lol. Even to get in I would need to drop at the very least $220 on certifications.

Good, I have disdain for the oilfield, meanwhile my jobs of preference (trooper, CO, EMT, or firefighter) are hiring so I won't rest until I obtain one.

That class is only $70.

Only Sharing to provide real time evidence of a young persons difficulties of finding a job these days. A lot of us are struggling.

I noted this type of situation, being more common today, in my earlier post on this thread:

The poor and even the middle class (not the upper middle class) will simply NOT be able to keep up with the skill demands for future employment, which will include REQUIRED CERTIFICATIONS, STATE LICENSING, etc. The lower class laborers will still needs to earn wages, pay mandatory education/licensing fees out of pocket AND keep a roof over their heads ALL at the same time. In the VERY NEAR future, these very high costs skills that will be needed to stay “relevant” in ALL labor markets, will only be affordable to the rich, or possibly, to a VERY few, forward thinking, middle class families, willing to sacrifice everything they have financially, while pooling resources, to keep their offspring competitive, in the larger job market.

a reply to: ReadLeader

This " millenial " stereotyping REALLY gets a bit old. I am 31 years old; therefore considered a " millenial ". I work in the IT sector as a Systems Admin. I have been in IT for almost ten years. I am more ambitious than some 10-20 years older than me and make more money too.

The general stereotyping of a HUGE range of ages is ridiculous. You guys are probably talking about age group 18-22; its expected when your that young not to have all your # together yet.. so give me an effin break.

Laziness has nothing to do with age or some broad age bracket with a name....so just stop it.

a reply to: waggz

Correct. Broad generalizations and extreme examples to justify their points. Not even remotely reasonable. I do IT freelance work on the side it's easy monies. Could go career and make more than am now, but it's not in alignment with my goals.

a reply to: waggz

The general stereotyping of a HUGE range of ages is ridiculous. You guys are probably talking about age group 18-22; its expected when your that young not to have all your # together yet.. so give me an effin break.

If I had gotten my stuff together at that age I wouldn't be having financial issues today. Not whining, just noting that launching a career does seem extra tough these days.

I resent being stereotyped as one with lack of work ethic and complaining about life whilst doing nothing. If that's the case.

All my money I've made off my back (manual labor/grunt work) for the most part. I was also living life at the same time and am now blessed with musical and athletic talent, amongst other things.

There is more to life then a big paycheck anyway, I'm far from done, and don't have much regret. Life is a struggle, and that's ok, it can be beautiful. I love my life and look forward with optimism.

Some people are In the right place at the right time, know the right people. That, combined with work ethic of course will lead to success, even these days.

Hard work always pays off, but for many hard work just keeps Them afloat.

It's all about who you are, your natural skills, and your environment.

I know ill get a career with a retirement, but the OP is bringing up truth in my opinion.

All of these individual accounts are meaningless. You all have to know that right? Just because you have a kid that has a decent job & is doing well, or know some other kid that is doing well, doesn't mean there are similar jobs available. This is not a bootstrap issue. The big picture is the one to pay attention to. By any measure, it doesn't look good, despite what that one kid on your block has going on, or that your grandfather told you that good old fashion elbow grease is all you need.

Once Hillary is elected as President, we will have the American Dream back!

Sorry man. I got so excited about HILLARY as president, I double posted!

a reply to: marg6043

I see your point, but I do think there is one thing we can learn from people who are willing to leave their entire known world behind to come to America, and that is the difference between "need" and "want".

I need nutritious food. I don't need to eat out every day.
I need a safe, clean, dry place to live for me and my family. It doesn't have to be fancy.
I need transportation. It just has to be reliable. It doesn't have to be fancy.
I need clothes. They have to be clean and presentable. They don't have to be fancy.
I need utilities. If I have a smaller house (see above) I don't need as much in the way of utilities.
I need some down time. If I use the library, or go to the many free events in my community, I don't need to pay anything for my entertainment. Or I could pick up a 2nd job doing something I like... even if it doesn't pay a lot, at least I'm not out spending money.

a reply to: infolurker

In your stepson's defense, in the last 10 years as I look around at American business leadership, it is much more about centralized control from the E suites and busy-ness, than about providing a product or service that will stand the test of time.

I hate to say this, but most executives wouldn't recognize (or accept) a real business plan if it came down from Heaven and said "Follow me and I will show you how to build this business for the long term". All they know how to do now is make deals, load the business down with a staggering amount of debt, and cut costs. They couldn't plan their way out of a paper bag. They couldn't build human resource capital if their souls depended on it, because a human is a wildcard in their book, a liability. And they get exactly what they pay for.

The E suite dudes report to the Board of Directors, who are only interested in shiling for their cronies on the Directors' circuit, doing something different than the last behinds that were keeping the boardroom chairs warm. In their minds, whatever the last guy did is what is wrong with the business, and just doing anything different will surely be better.

And it really does not matter one bit to them whether the company name, products, employees or customers all get abused in the process, because they'll move on to some other fodder, er, company within 2 years anyway.

Sorry, bad day at the office for me today :-)

Ok, apologies for my bad-day induced rant last night.

S&F to the OP, there were some fine comments in the post accomanying the article, and I thank you for the link.

Wasaka, you mentioned 'wage stagnation for the typical worker' for the past decade.

May I submit my assertion that it goes much deeper than that. Non-typical workers (ie those that give it their best in support of the mission every day, regardless of title and pay) have also experienced wage stagnation.

The sad fact is, my company has not granted merit or cost of living increases since before the crash in 2008... not to anyone but Sales Management and Executive Level employees.


Those of us that have survived the 15 RIF events that have taken place since then have adapted, absorbed the workload of those RIF'ed, trained (at our own expense) for new responsibilities, learned to form self-organizing efficient problem solving teams with no direction needed from the top. Let's not forget the sheer will it takes to keep advancing your skills inspite of no wage increase and fear your position is next on the RIF list.

We are not typical in our eork ethic or drive. Or in our ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn. Nor in our ability to push the political bs aside and just do the freakin job. It seems to me that surviving multiple rounds of layoffs would speak to us being above average in these areas. Many of us have refused offers from recruiters and colleagues who have moved on to other pastures.


Yet our pay has not advanced at all.

We still have the usual expenses in our households, and those have gone up roughly 20% in the years our pay hasn't advanced.

Except for healthcare expenses. Those have gone up about 100% over that time, even for those who have no new or major ilnesses to contend with.

And in that time, the insurance benefit has reduced, yet we are paying more out of pocket than before, and we have to meet a crazy high deductible before the insurance will pay a dime.

We still have to replace things that break in our houses. My personal experience since 2008... we gave replaced...
One car
One water heater
One hvac unit
One refrigerator
One car engine
And added foundation piers under our foundation to keep the slab from sinking.

And lost every bit of equity we had built in the house when properties in the city were revalued after the housing bubble burst. Glad to say we have never been underwater on the mortgage... but our ability to borrow against that equity evaporated.


Race has nothing whatsoever to do with it. It's just life. Anyone who isn't part of the Elite is in a race to the bottom, basically.

a reply to: wasaka

A lot of the problems can be traced back to the formation of Big Business Lobby Groups and their growing influence in politics in the late 70's. Prior to this, politicians worked for the majority of American's. Now they work solely for the Corporate Fascists. NAFTA, China Trade, WTO, TPP are all rotten products from the corporate fascists.

There used to be a mutual benefit between citizens and corporations in the nation.
Since they have gone global, that mutual relationship has disappeared.

www.salon.com...

Over the next four decades, the increasing globalization of multinational corporations forced U.S. companies to develop new strategies for increasing profits. This globalization of capital also changed how U.S. companies interacted with the U.S. government, ultimately diminishing government influence on companies. By 2008, shortly before the start of the economic crisis, Business Week observed that, “in effect, U.S. multinationals have been decoupling from the U.S. economy in the last decade. They still have their headquarters in America, they’re still listed on U.S. stock exchanges and most of their shareholders are still American. But their expansion has been mainly overseas.” As economic pressures forced corporate managers to let go of patriotism that may have motivated earlier decisions, their concern for the well-being of the American people and its economy declined.

If they wish to do business overseas, I support tariffs and also booting them out of our government.

originally posted by: infolurker
a reply to: wasaka

My stepson has had more jobs (employers) in the last 2 years than I have had in my entire life.

This younger generation of males that I have seen (both family related and children of friends and co-workers) all seem to have the same attitude. They don't like to work for more than a few weeks before getting bored and quitting.

They seem to have this fantasy that they must actually enjoy their work. Big Surprise, after a few months / years all jobs suck. You are trading your time for money so stop being a fool and acquire the skills needed to make that worth while in a job you can stand not love because love for a job generally fades quickly over time.

They also seem more than happy to be dead broke. If they can cover their basics, they have little desire to improve and they are not greedy for overtime like we were at that age.

Maybe sit down with him and find out what he likes to do and then find a common center for all of those likes that branch out in a tree from and then center on a job is at the center of what he likes.

I have taken the way of life of a successful person I met once,...

Run the farm like you are losing money, even when you arent.

Bored millenials lol. They are so used to following exciting bandwagons. And as soon as myspace got boring, they all ran to fb. And then twitter.

But jobs really arent a point and click away once it gets "boring".

And they will get hungry eventually.

Can't these kids see Donald trump, the embodiment of the American Dream. Came from nothing, pulled himself up by his bootstraps out of poverty to become a presidential candidate. A living breathing example of the American Dream

originally posted by: woodwardjnr
Can't these kids see Donald trump, the embodiment of the American Dream. Came from nothing, pulled himself up by his bootstraps out of poverty to become a presidential candidate. A living breathing example of the American Dream

I really don't quite understand why some people think Donald Trump is a worse choice than "Clinton part II" or "Bush part III".

Trump is running a Presidential Campaign and a company with 22,000+ employees, that has billions of dollars in real estate holdings. People need to start giving the guy some friggin credit. In contrast, what other organization, WITH EMPLOYED STAFF, was Obama "running" during his initial Presidential campaign? NONE, just his Presidential campaign, with some skeleton crew staffers left behind, to autopilot his Senate duties, same goes for "Bush part II" (just replace "Senator" with "Governor").

Although Trump did grow up rich, inheriting money and property from his fathers businesses, the Trump Family is self-made for the most part and do not seem to be directly connected with NWO/Old-Money types (all the Trumps are Tax Dodgers BTW). Trumps grandfather did not process properly through Ellis Island, in the late 1800's and had left behind many unpaid debt in Europe by the time he came to America and started his new businesses. What regualr people don't seem to understand is that folks like Donald Trump and Ross Perot are considered "trash" by the standards of the Romney and Bush clans types, with family members having held political offices, in the Untied States, as far back as the 1850's. Note, Reagan, Clinton, and Obama also had no direct family ties to the NWO/Old-Money types. However, they were not nearly as wealthy, nor as independently bold, as Trump or Perot and eventually all of them did "toe the line", following the orders of the NWO/Old-Money types.

The reality is that Trump will NEVER be accepted as part of the true "Owners of Capital" club because he is the decedent of regular working class immigrants from Germany, that came to the USA via Ellis Island. Whether voters believe it or not, people like Donald Trump and Ross Perot before him, are truly, the best chance, regular people have to being represented by someone in office who's family is not beholden to or part of the NWO/Old-Money types. Although I have not thoroughly checked, it does not appear that Donald Trump nor Ross Perot were ever invited to or attended the Bilderberg Conference. That's a GOOD sign, not a bad one.

Also there are some other things to consider, if Trump has a REAL chance at winning the republican nomination or somehow gets huge backing as an Independent, the "Owners of Capital" will simply do what they did to Ross Perot and once that process unfolds he will eventually decide to "willingly withdraw" from the race.

Also, do people really believe, that if someone like Donald Trump wins the election, that he will be able to do what he wants, as apposed to, what the "Military Industrial Complex" wants him to do?

Anyone who becomes President of the United States has to "cow tow" to the "Military Industrial Complex" and even Donald Trump is not immune to a guaranteed "CIA visit" once in office.

Be assured they will pay him a visit, if he ever wins, and like Ross Perot, Jessie Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Obama, he too will be told to "toe the line" and "play ball", as they dictate. For example, why in the world did Arnold Schwarzenegger need to do ANYTHING along party lines? His fame and popularity COMPLETELY transcended political parties, yet somehow he was still "answering" to politicians who "in theory" should have had no affect on his personal life, political career or personal fortune, all of which existed prior to being elected and was held COMPLETELY outside of the confines or influence of the "Military Industrial Complex".

Also consider this angle, there is a huge assets difference between someone like Mitt Romney, who has a $250 million net worth and Ross Perot with a $5 billion net worth (Donald Trump has a net worth of $4 Billion). Yet, someone like Romney was a shoe in for party nominations. As I alluded to above, its NOT the money nor the popular vote that matters, people like Mitt and Jeb Bush are government insiders and both come from families that always have been government insiders. That was not the case at all with Perot and the same goes for Trump, hence neither of them can be elected regardless of the popular vote or the public's desires or how much money they spend.

Ross Perot dropping out of the 1992 election was not happenstance either, nor simply about his daughters wedding:

Mr. Perot offered no evidence, only quoting friends and an unidentified "top Republican." "I can't prove any of it today," he said on tonight's CBS News program "60 Minutes." "But it was a risk I did not have to take," he added, "and a risk I would not take where my daughter is concerned." Mr. Perot accused the unidentified C.I.A. employee of being hired to tap into his computerized stock trading program to prevent him from having the money to revive his campaign.

Trump and Sanders, in my opinion, are the least likely, currently "visible candidates", to be heavily affiliated with NWO/Old-Money types. Trump and Sanders weren't "born into" the "right kind" of political families, in fact their ancestors were immigrants from the lower classes of Europe. Its actually really too bad they can't be on the same ticket, running as Independents, with Sanders as President and Trump as VP, with people like Ralph Nader, Jessie Ventura and Ron Paul filling the various cabinet positions (pooling campaign resources, with the intention of actually trying to win, as a team and not solo).

But if they tried to pull a "hat trick" like that, I'm sure quite a few of them would QUICKLY find themselves at risk of being in a "plane crash" or on the wrong end of a "car accident".

I think Ross Perot would have done a much better job than ANY of the "good ol' boys" that we've gotten as Presidents since then. Again, Perot dropping out of the 1992 election was not happenstance, nor was it simply about his daughters wedding. He was likely threatened in some way that none of us can imagine. Why has he been so quiet, for the last 20+ years? Donald Trump will be no different, but, if he decides to run for President and he somehow wins, best case scenario, it will be Arnold Schwarzenegger or Ronald Reagan all over again.

American Dream is like Santa Clause.. very much a myth. I will add that marriage is overrated and the younger generations should avoid this contract with the state, as it will bite you in the ass when you are divorced. Make your own Dream.