Fareed Zakaria, a renowned writer for the Time magazine, is originally from India and writes about the American Dream from a global perspective. The American Dream was general prosperity and well-being for the average person, which thus created an optimistic nation. Today, Americans are more glum, dispirited and angry, with a recent poll illustrating 63% of Americans did not feel they could maintain their current standard of living. The Middle Class are the most affected by the recession. With the growth in technology and an increased efficiency of being able to do more with less, jobs are becoming harder to create and even harder to find. In 2001, consumption had grown to 70% and has stayed there ever since. However, income and wages have been largely stagnant. This substantial increase in living standards and consumption was facilitated by a dramatic increase in credit, so that now the average American family has no fewer than 13 credit cards. The massive debts managed to find stimulate the economy through increased consumption but also generated an unsustainable expansion of borrowing.
Zakaria suggests in the article that shielding off industries from world-class competitors (trade restrictions) will actually be a great disadvantage to the economy. There needs to be a shift from consumption to investment and a large portion of that needs to go into research and development for innovation. America invests in people in the form of high quality education but sends many of these skilled workers back to their own countries to be high level resources there as opposed to making use of them as assets in the US. If the US made use of their skills to innovate and inspire and create jobs in the US, there is a possibility it would help the US economy and unemployment situation much more.
I feel like though, everyone is not doing too well as of right now. So with that being said, I think its a pretty bold statement to make saying that the American dream is down. I would like to see the American dream being down when the economy is up. Once the economy is up, it will be easier to make money and the American dream will be "restored."
ReplyDeleteThe US needs to take certain measures for the economy to be up again and the American Dream to be restored. The American Dream is based on an optimism to succeed and a lead a prosperous lifestyle. Currently, with the high levels of unemployment and the increasing bitterness with any policies passed, it looks like a lot of work needs to be done before that optimism is refreshed.
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