Grappling With a New Economic Reality. Matt Roth for The New York Times Jennifer Turner, center, with her children, Irene, 8, left, and Yancy, 5.
“We may not be able to do what other people do,” she said of her family’s future. And we’re having a hard time pairing our expectations with the reality. It’s not that we’ve been immune from the economic turmoil that has troubled the country. The magazine my husband worked at folded in 2009, and though we were luckier than most and he eventually found other work, it was a scary time. We dealt with it by paring back on eating out, vacations and other nonessentials. And we’re not the only ones. “We have made an upper-middle-class income and are living an upper-middle-class life, but with how the economy has played out, we need to make more middle-class decisions, and we refuse to do it,” said a friend of mine, who asked that her name not be used because she didn’t want her friends to know her financial situation. My friend is not alone in grappling with this dichotomy. Jessica R. Dreistadt: Prosperity, Privilege and Power: My New American Dream. My new American Dream is unapologetically centered on three interrelated ideas: prosperity, privilege and power.
While most discussions of prosperity implicitly reflect the devastating impact of material scarcity and manipulation, there are at least three underdeveloped areas where America has the capacity to realize unlimited growth. By cultivating and sharing these resources, our potential as a truly united nation and as an international ally could be exponential. Because these resources are available to all countries throughout the planet, I suggest we expeditiously develop each of them to maintain our position as a world leader. The first resource is emotional richness. Unions decline in Detroit. Most people call Detroit a post-industrial city.
But in the city of Dearborn, just a few steps outside southwest Detroit, is the Ford Motor Company’s Rouge plant. It’s still running—even if it now employs just a small sliver of the 100-thousand people it used to. And there, in its shadow, is UAW Local 600. Robert Turner meets me in the parking lot of the union hall, because he’s the kind of gentleman who doesn’t want me to walk to my car alone. His story is one you come across a lot in Detroit.
“When I came to Detroit in 1966, I was just a little ol’ Virginia country boy. Is the American Dream deferred for young people? Traditionally, strong labor has helped close the gap between the wealthy and the poor, ensuring working class people have a path to stability. Robert describes himself as a hopeful, “positive” guy who believes he’s a living example of the American Dream. “I think that sometimes that’s been our biggest problem. Conspiracy theory-mongering? (Sarah Cwiek/WBEZ) ObamaCare and the American Dream. Candidates and the Truth About America.
Marcus Baram: Middle-Class American Dream Still Possible, Though More Elusive. The American dream may be more out of reach, but it's not impossible to achieve.
The middle class is certainly shrinking -- the mean net worth of middle-class families dropped 28% from 2001 to 2010 and median income for a four-person household actually declined from $73,000 to $70,000 over that period. And the gap between rich and poor continues to grow, with almost 46.2 million Americans living in poverty and the upper class holding a larger share of net income. Social mobility -- that hallmark of the American experience -- seems more like a myth.
It does seem harder to afford the middle-class lifestyle -- to own a home and a car, pay for college for two kids and take a vacation once a year -- faced with declining income and net worth. But it's still possible -- especially if you live in certain parts of the country like the South and the West. The salaries in New York City, San Francisco and Boston may be high but that advantage is more than outmatched by the exorbitant cost of living. Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital. The great criticism of Mitt Romney, from both sides of the aisle, has always been that he doesn't stand for anything.
He's a flip-flopper, they say, a lightweight, a cardboard opportunist who'll say anything to get elected. The critics couldn't be more wrong. Mitt Romney is no tissue-paper man. American dream — Are we optimistic, pessimistic? COLUMBUS, Ohio — He’s 30, between jobs, with $50,000 in student debt and no clear sense of what the future holds.
But Erik Santamaria, Ohio-born son of Salvadorans, has a pretty awesome attitude about his country, his life and the world of possibilities. “Maybe things won’t work out the way I want,” he says. Clinging to the American Dream in Middletown, Ohio. (CBS News) MIDDLETOWN, Ohio - Both Mitt Romney and President Obama are courting middle-class voters -- many of whom fear the dream of a better life for their children is slipping away.
In a CBS News poll, 39 percent of voters told us they are worse off than they were four years ago. So how would the candidates' tax policies affect the middle class?