Does The American Dream still exist?

This weekend in Lansing the “Dreams and Lifestyle Expo” was happening at the Lansing Center. Exhibitors of many genres filled the exhibition hall telling us all about how to plan for our financial future, showed us luxurious items we could all attain to possess like boats, motorcycles, hot tubs, and backyard putting greens and waterfalls. And, yes, the ShamWow booth was there. Seems the ShamWow is everywhere.

On Friday, during the Intelligence Briefing on the morning show, the discussion turned to “The American Dream”. Because of the down economy, Americans are learning to make do with less. We fix things instead of dispose of them; we economize instead of splurge. A 40-inch TV instead of a 100-inch plasma screen, for example.

However, we discussed a down side to this as there have been reports of the waste management industry suffering economic and employment hits. Seems being in the garbage business isn’t as lucrative of a business opportunity as it once was. People hanging on to things longer; “making do” with what that have instead of the old social pattern of buy new and dispose used on a frequent cycle.

Los Angeles Times Op-Ed writer Thomas Friedman wrote recently to suggest that the recession is a symptom of a more fundamental problem with "the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years”. A recent report in the satirical publication, The Onion, quoted an employee of a Chinese plastics factory expressing amazement and disbelief over the "sheer amount of garbage Americans will buy."

So, with all this “gloom and doom” that our current economic woes have beset us, does “The American Dream” still exist? We seem to have reached a financial apex where attaining it is not only economically unsustainable, but it hasn't generated any real wealth for the average American, either. Housing prices are beginning to fall rapidly, but the average middle class American still hasn’t the means to purchase a home. Credit is still tight, and incomes – even with two of them in a household – aren’t sustainable enough to take on a major financial obligation.

How much is enough? Right now is seems more and more each day that our former mindset of consumption as a way of life can no longer sustain itself. It appears that our society has reach critical mass when it comes to our spending habits. And with reports of recalls of dollar store useless plastic trinkets from China, combined with increased awareness and practice of “being green” by reusing and recycling, we no longer are even interested in cheap baubles, toys and useless junk.

Do we still need that second fridge in the basement recreational room or the third one in the garage? Do we still want to pick up the latest electronic innovations the moment they are released…the bigger plasma TVs, the hottest BluRay disc players, the newest G3 web-enabled cell phones that can email, text, surf the web, and make coffee? I thought the main purpose of a cell phone was for making and receiving phone calls.

Are we still so much absorbed in having so many things that we continue salivating for that elusive Shiatsu scalp massager? Do we still have the belief that “he who dies with the most toys wins”? My guess is that the average American has abandoned that mindset in favor of having less and still trying to be substantive in what we have. I know that has been mine.

I realize that to turn things around, we need to increase confidence in our economy and begin to spend in the marketplace again. Thus, helping manufacturers and service oriented companies turn around and bring jobs back into the financial stream. But, has the whole financial sector bail-out thing soured our stomachs to the point of not trusting our leaders in government when they preach to us to have this confidence? If credit lines have disappeared and there is no longer investment in future growth, then when will this be rectified so that we can get back on track…if we ever will?

We as Americans have conditioned since the end of WWII to reach for the stars in obtaining The American Dream. Work hard and you’ll advance economic status, and be able to obtain your dreams, and then have the lifestyle you desire. But, as many have discovered, all this hard work and investing has led to dashed hopes and shattered dreams. Because part of what we have included in the meteoric climb of “Keeping up with the Jones’s” is to borrow and spend what we don’t have readily available in the moment. Kind of like the old robbing Peter to pay Paul, so to speak.

I guess the realization is that we have to live with less. Not poor, but simpler. Spend only what we actually have, not what we can borrow and put on credit, especially with financial institution credit tightened to less than a trickle. And while we do, we wait to see how the whole financial mess shakes out.

The mindset of borrowing to purchase the American Dream until there is more debt than actual cash flow is not new. It, in fact, was one of the main reasons for the Great Depression in the late 1920s and 1930s. Once again, it seems we have refused to learn from history. Hopefully this time we do.