I narrate key points in my post “The American Dream Is Dead, But We Don’t Dare Admit It”
There is a generational denial that reality has changed, because older generations base their opinions on conditions that no longer exist. I have repeatedly laid this out in the most insightful possible way, which is the purchasing power of wages measured in rent, home ownership and the cost of living.
This method strips out the illusions created by nominal dollar amounts. Am I better off now earning $65,000 (the median full-time wage in the US) than I was earning $20,000 in the 1980s?
No, because my hours of labor buy so much less now: my earnings now buy less of everything, other than occasional purchases like TVs, laptops and clothing. Everything that counts as major expenses is far more costly now when measured in the hours of labor needed to buy them.
This is undeniable fact, and so we dare not admit it, can't bear to admit it, because it's the death certificate of The American Dream.
The evidence that The American Dream is dead is all around us, and it takes an extremely obstinate level of denial to keep insisting that the problem isn't the socio-political-economic system that dictates the incentives and rules of everyday life, it's that young people don't want to work hard, etc.
The American Dream Is Dead, But We Don't Dare Admit It
This is essay #8 in the series The Revolution No One Sees Coming.
