The do-or-die American, part 1
by Dahlia Rizk
Every once in a while, and especially in this great city of Chicago, you’ll hear someone talking about the American Dream—on the subway, in a café, at Saks Fifth Avenue. You’ll hear it manifest in many forms, ones which may not seem very obvious at first, but will all, upon reflection, inevitably touch that tireless optimism that refuses defeat or surrender. Here are some entirely fictional, entirely plausible, scenarios:
(Middle aged family man on L) My daughter got accepted to NYU, and she really wants to go, but it’s obviously much more expensive than a state school. Lets out a sigh. Things are really tight now at work and his wife Sharon is pregnant, but how do you say no to your daughter’s dreams? No, we’re gonna figure this out. Maybe a second mortgage.
(Girl on cell phone at Saks) Ohmigodohmigodohmigod. I want that Chanel bag. No, I need it. I definitely need it, so I’m buying it. Just look at it, it’s so cute. My creditors are going to kill me, but, ugh, screw them. I hate creditors, they’re so lame.
(Iranian immigrant speaking to a friend at neighborhood café) Yes, of course there are challenges to life here. Of course you miss home sometimes, your mothers cooking, all of that. But in America you can be…whatever you want. The idea that you can let go of all your fears and disappear into the crowd. Such a thing could only happen in this country.
Make it work. Don’t say no. You are what you do. There’s something incredibly refreshing about the kind of perseverant let’s-eat-our-cake attitude Americans have, one that I personally haven’t been able to find anywhere else. And yet, there’s something very sinister happening to their dreams, and (at the risk of sounding melodramatic) it’s happening as we speak, rumbling beneath our feet.
Now, I’m not a historian, but by all accounts, all the American history professors I know would agree that at the end of Second World War, things were good for American families. Now, these families are likely white and wearing very starched clothing. I realize that. I say this with full acknowledgement of the many faults of the social order of the time when it came to women’s rights, civil rights, gay rights, and the anti-smoking lobby. That said, the 1950s may seem slightly drab, if not incredibly hokey time to live, where the most subversive thing one could find was Elvis gyrating his hips to “Hound Dog”, but consider this: A family could own their own home and live comfortably on only one parent’s full-time salary, send their kids to college when college was still affordable under said one-parent income, and taking care of one’s own arm and leg didn’t cost an arm and a leg.
Well, 60 years later, and things have changed profoundly. I’m not an economist, but if you can show me how, over the last 30 years, wages haven’t remained virtually flat, inflation on an unrelenting rise, and health care and college tuition (two of the most significant expenditures for the middle class family) absolutely ballooning, I’m gonna have to – to quote President Obama – take a look at your math. And neither of us would want that because I’m actually not very good at math. Put that with figures of distribution of wealth, and the picture gets a little scarier.
Since the 70s, the wealthy have been getting wealthier, with the result that now, in 2010 income inequality is at an all time high, even trumping the Great Depression (this is a study conducted by an Economics Professor at USC).
This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while now, and I think the question that intrigues me most of all is, what now? What do do-or-die, don’t-fuck-with-me Americans who don’t have Van Goghs hanging in their Madison Avenue penthouses have to say now?
Well, as it turns out, they’ve got ideas of their own. Stay tuned, folks.
In my personal opinion The do-or-die American, part 1 | Diskord is actually a very well composed narrative. Certainly worthy of referfing to and consequently perfectly worth referfing to http://diskordchicago.com/2010/04/the-do-or-die-american-part-1/ on top of that. Good luck, Lionel Dobles
Someone I work with visits your blog frequently and recommended it to me to read as well. The writing style is excellent and the content is relevant. Thanks for the insight you provide the readers!
greetings. Great post. Saved and will return again often. thanks
In my personal opinion The do-or-die American, part 1 | Diskord is actually a very well composed narrative. Certainly worthy of referfing to and consequently perfectly worth referfing to http://diskordchicago.com/2010/04/the-do-or-die-american-part-1/ on top of that. Good luck, Lionel Dobles
greetings. Great post. Saved and will return again often. thanks
Someone I work with visits your blog frequently and recommended it to me to read as well. The writing style is excellent and the content is relevant. Thanks for the insight you provide the readers!