The article is written by Mike Whitney in 2014 and is a long rand about how the American Dream is dead and the government is corrupt.
Finding background information about this author was not an easy task. On his website you find a large number of articles that all seem to have the same theme; criticizing the modern society and the ‘evil’ capitalistic country of America.
However, is it really true that there are just no way to get yourself out of poverty or climb the social ladder? That it would be completely impossible to get out of poverty - is not a true statement, if you ask me. if you work hard, finish High School and College there is a 72% chance that you will join the middleclass . The Article also says that if you end up in the middleclass you are most likely to spend the rest of your life working a “shitty” middleclass job that you don’t like. But is the US really at fault? Of course, a huge part of the middleclass will continue to stay in the middleclass because not everyone can become a billionaire. In today’s world, it is not an easy task to become super successful in any country, and just because you work the same job for a long time and work hard, it does not mean that you automatically become CEO. It is not that simple anymore; you will have to consider many aspects like social skills, creativity, getting to know the right people, luck etc. I am not saying that the capitalistic world we live in is fair, but there is not much we can do about it - or maybe there is? America is a great place to start your own business because of the relatively low tax rates. Not that everyone who tries to build their own company in America will succeed and become rich, but it certainty is a lot easier than in many other countries.
The author might be right in that ‘The American Dream’ might be dead, but the American Dream was created in a time were almost everyone could come to America, start their own farm and use slaves to become rich. In my opinion there is no doubt that America was not build by the immigrant from Europe that through hard work established the foundation to the rich and powerful nation that we know today, instead a huge part of this were definitely achieved through slavery. Nevertheless, luckily slavery is not legal anymore, which changed the American economy. This proves that America is definitely not a perfect country and it still faces problems today like any other country. One of the biggest problems you face when you are trying to get an education is the way Colleges works in America. When going to College you not only have to pay for tuition, but also books, School Supplies, housing, meals and all the other kind of fees they charge you for using the College’s facilities . This adds up to a huge sum of money that many students struggle to pay without help from their parents and end up with a huge debt that they will spend the rest of their lives paying off. This shows that the American Dream can be very hard to achieve and that America is in no way a perfect country. With this said the author of the text make some mocking statements in my opinion for example “The entire system is rigged from top to bottom to make sure that no one who isn’t part of the inner circle is ever able to lift himself above his present, clock-punching, mind-numbing, 9 to 5 drudgery.”
Here the author claims that everyone who is rich or powerful is part of some sort of “inner circle” who’s goal is to keep the rest of the country poor and does not want people outside this circle to succeed in any way possible. That in my opinion sounds like some communist propaganda more than anything. The notion that just because you are rich you are also a bad person is a simplification. Capitalism is definitely not always fair but money is the motivation that most people need to do great things and to think that rich people are members of some sort of secret club that hates the general population seems absurd to me.
Not anyone can become rich and many people in America work minimum wage jobs that does not pay very well, in fact some say that the minimum wages in America is not sufficient for a decent living, which I think is a very important issue that the author rises. However, it seems that something is actually being done and last year 11 states raised the minimum wage, but it is still a huge problem in America and something needs to be done.