Project American Dream Traders

    The American Dream could be said to have existed really as far back as the founding of the Thirteen Colonies. People risked the dangerous Atlantic crossing in order to begin a new life in America where one could be born anew, so to speak. Fleeing persecution or desperation, they clung to the hope that a better life awaited them in the new land. However, the term itself was not used until 1931 by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America. He states:

In the United States’ Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers: "…held certain truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Might this sentiment be considered the foundation of the American Dream? Were homesteaders who left the big cities of the east to find happiness and their piece of land in the unknown wilderness pursuing these inalienable rights? Were the immigrants who came to the United States looking for their bit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness following their dream? And what of the desire of the veteran of World War II to settle down, to have a home, a car and a family tell us about this evolving dream? Is the American Dream attainable by all Americans? Would Martin Luther King feel his dream was attained? Did Malcolm X realize his dream? Have any of us?
    Some say that the American Dream has become the pursuit of material prosperity, that people work more hours to get bigger, better, more… cars, fancier homes, the fruits of prosperity for their families, but have less time to enjoy their success. Traditionally, Americans have sought to realize the American dream of success, fame and wealth through thrift and hard work. However, the industrialization of the 19th and 20th centuries began to erode the dream, replacing it with a philosophy of "get rich quick". Others say that the American Dream is beyond the grasp of the working poor who must work two jobs to insure their family’s survival. Yet others look toward a new American Dream with less focus on financial gain and more emphasis on living a simple, fulfilling life.
    In Financing the American Dream: A Cultural History of Consumer Credit, Lendol Calder explores the fusion of materialistic and idealistic impulses within the American Dream. Although the dream upholds such ideals as freedom and self-fulfillment, it rests on access to the consumer commodities that are the building blocks of personal identity under the capitalist system. For Calder, the costly nature of these products explains the "long-standing American tradition of going into debt to bring unattainable dreams within reach" (p.290). Financing the American Dream this time around has opened a Pandora's Box and the bad news keeps coming.
    First to spring out of the box were foreclosures. Foreclosure rates have risen steadily as adjustable rate mortgages reset and sent waves of financial distress through households and communities of low, fixed-income home owners who realized they'd been sold a bill of goods. Several studies reveal that up to two million homeowners will lose their homes before the market bottoms, due to poor lending decisions, fraud, consumer ignorance and a host of other factors. This speaks to the power of the key component of the American Dream-home ownership. Every Tom, Dick and Harry bought into this ideal and the market forces catered to them creating a disaster of epic proportions.
    The iconic white picket fence has become a representative image of the American Dream. It is a metaphor for the myriad desires of those who want to move up the socio- economic ladder and seek home or land ownership in America. The “cute little house with a white picket fence” evokes images of Wisteria Lane for some and idyllic pastoral settings for others. Whatever the image, it is indeed shorthand for home ownership in America. From our land rush-ancestors we have inherited the need to own, not rent. Renting has become almost sacrilege in our culture. Just ask Suzy Orman and the myriad of other gurus of what American dreamers should do with dream money. Owning a piece of the earth is the fundamental piece of the “dream”. Realtors and lenders, it can be argued, became the gate keeps or this particular component of the dream. What will happen in the future remains to be seen, but it is almost a certainty that the situation will worsen before it improves.
    In the end, though, it is the birthright of each American to define the Dream. We are a nation of roughly 301 million people with bloodlines stemming from almost every other nation on the planet. Surely the American Dream is not a one size fits all notion. However, we are all American and are all united by the incontrovertible fact that our forefathers bequeathed to us the ability to dream dreams larger than ourselves. In the words of one such dreamer, Ronald Reagan, “…each individual has the right to fly as high as his strength and ability will take him....”. What does the Dream mean to you?