The cost of the American Dream

Once an aspirational ideal, the American Dream has become a pyramid game and a life lie too many still want to believe in. It creates a few winners and a massive base of frustrated and angry people. It is like a lottery game that sells as a just system where everybody can win, but, only a few can win, and the masses pay for the wins of the few. The capitalist system and ideology play a central role here and is based on greed, and it is a system for making money, not a system designed to achieve a good or better society.

Collective frustration and aggression manifest on the individual level in massive school shootings and on a national level by the storming of the Capitol. The individual right to arm oneself is being exploited by the NRA lobby, which makes aggression a righteous defense mechanism and capitalistic underpinned ideal. The wrong idea is that good people can prevent harm by shooting bad people, as depicted in the Hollywood industry, the game industry, and many other forms of entertainment, underpinning the cowboy hero ideology inherited from an ancient settler and the ‘free world ideology’ where killing people who lived there before was seen as a Christian deed or just as collateral damage. However, statistical facts prove that more often than not, bad people shooting defenseless good people(like schoolchildren)is the real general effect of a lack of gun control: the Second Amendment is a counterproductive obsolete piece of legislation.

Angry people need, love, and vote for an angry populist leader who feeds their anger. Hitler’s “stab-in-the-back myth”, and Donald Trump’s & Jair Bolsonaro’s “the election was stolen” rhetoric are three of many examples with an unfortunately significant and intended effect. These leaders are adept at exploiting the masses’ anger and directing it toward their political opponents for their narcissistic game. Everybody knows in their gut this will lead to confrontation, conflict, violence, and as a nation; ultimately selv- destruction.

Their arrogance is as big as their EGO

The wealthiest capitalists and individuals often evade paying their fair share of taxes, which could provide healthcare for everyone in society. Their actions stem from the greed-driven capitalist system that rewards individuals at the top and encourages what’s known as “moral whitewashing.” They falsely portray themselves as good people who’ve achieved the American Dream by exploiting the system for their benefit while avoiding taxes that could fund healthcare for all. Instead, some prefer to make narcissistic charity donations or host fundraising parties with champagne, leaving healthcare underfunded. They showcase their supposed “moral capital” by traveling to Davos in private jets to discuss inequality, but little action is ever taken.

Historian and author Rutger Bregman made headlines at the World Economic Forum in Davos by suggesting that large marginal tax rates, like those proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), would benefit the public more than philanthropy.

The American Dream has become a myth, a lie that still today costs society everything. It perpetuates inequality and creates a society of winners and losers. It is time to move beyond the American Dream and create a society based on and rewards harmony, cooperation, and community. More than ever before in the history of mankind, we need international solidarity and cooperation to solve global crises, including climate change, and address national egocentric tendencies both at home and abroad. We need a fair tax system that is just, one that ensures that everyone has access to healthcare, education, and a decent standard of living, now and in the future. That would give us less aggression and instability and the base we need to be able, both as a national and global society, to move in a better direction with more hope and trust and get rid of the feelings of moral resignation and impotence.

Understand me correctly, I have nothing against the USA in general. The USA has brought a lot of good to the world and continues to do so, and no society and democracy has to be perfect… I definitely would much rather live in the USA than in Russia, China, or any other country that sees individual freedom as a threat to the power of the state. My critique of the American dream is primarily based on the concerns I have for the USA that I love, the United States where a free multicultural society shows that personal freedom and a harmonious society form the optimal combination to offer humanity and our planet a future perspective that me and probably any conscious person in this world would gladly support and contribute to. This America seems to be slipping away, unfortunately… or seems to have come to a complete standstill, why in heaven’s name?

Tjook