★ “The New American Dream”

People’s Economist:

In many ways we are victims of our own success. We wanted bigger and by almost any measure we got it. But what exactly is it that we got? A higher standard of living? Standard of living is a quantitative measure often expressed as GDP per capita. But such a metric fails to accurately reflect reality for tens of millions of poor and working class Americans and more recently a growing number of those in the middle-class. Conventional wisdom has always suggested that a rising standard of living naturally equated to a higher quality of life. That more equalsbetter. But if quality of life is defined as spending more time doing the things that fulfill us, that make us happier, that make us healthier, that make us smarter, then we have failed miserably at increasing the quality of life in America.

The American Dream is dying a long, slow death – its core premise – a better life – has been badly misinterpreted by multiple generations of Americans as a bigger life. Now a bigger life is achievable by fewer and fewer Americans. And ironically, that may not be a bad thing in the end. Perhaps this is what it will take for us to finally realize that bigger does not necessarily mean better – and that the quantity of our lives is not always a relevant measure of the quality of our lives. The truly hopeful thing is this: If we interpret the American Dream to mean abetter life – and no longer a bigger life – then we make it possible for every American to achieve the American Dream.