Chasing the American Dream: The American Dream Falls Victim to Insomnia
We need to revive The American Dream. We need to lower the cost of child rearing, and grow our population. We need to make home ownership a realistic option available to everyone willing to work for it. You agree? I’ve got some ideas. Hope you have some too! Here are personal observations:
A Child of the 50’s
I was a child of the 50’s and brought up in the suburbs. Lots of cities like New York, Chicago, and L.A. all had suburbs, and they all were the same, just in different places.
Most of the moms in our middle-class neighborhood were called housewives. They took care of the kids, managed meals, and all incidentals needed for our homes. They worked hard—but were not paid. The husbands made the money. They got a mortgage, bought a house, and built a family. It was freedom! If you find an episode of Father Knows Best, a TV show everybody watched back then, it exemplified how life was supposed to be. It was what people hoped for. It was The American Dream—husband and wife, two kids, a home they owned, a car for the husband, and a dog to love.
Generations believed life for their children would be better than life had been for them. Their children would certainly have more opportunity, more security, more recreation, and more freedom! Whatever happened to that?
One Income Is Not Enough
Now, decades later, if there are the two adults in the family, both must earn money. It’s a harsh reality. The cost of everything—food, housing, insurance, taxes, transportation—everything is expensive. One income won’t cut it anymore. With both working, who takes care of those kids? Some people have the blessing of family or trusted friends, and a no-cost solution. For the rest, it’s daycare!
Daycare is a necessary evil, an expensive one that can be a stressful financial anchor that drags the family down. Gotta’ get those kids there on time and get them picked up before the deadline—or pay extra. Better never be late with a payment! Do school start times always perfectly align with work start times? Hardly! If the school drop-off starts at 7:00 but those working adults must be on their jobs by 7:00, what then? What about those federal holidays when the schools are closed but the adults making the money still have to work? Washington’s Birthday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Veterans Day, Juneteenth, and Columbus Day are tough days for families forced to find a way to care for their children without losing their jobs. They can’t leave the slightly older kids home to fend for themselves. They could be accused of child abuse!
It gets even more complicated. What about summer vacations? What can they do with the kids for an entire summer while they only get two weeks off? While in many Asian countries you’ll find year-round schooling, summer vacations for school children are common around the world. Those working adults still have to work. They get vacations, but not two months—unless they are school teachers. The difficulties, costs, and challenges of daycare contribute to the big problem.
I found myself in a cordial political debate with a millennial, and the drop in birth rates came up. He said, “No way is Social Security gonna’ be there for me. Even if our government doesn’t screw it up, birth rates are down.”
“I agree,” I replied. “All the thousands of dollars I’ve paid in isn’t just sitting there with compounding interest. The fund has been raped and pillaged by the powers that be for years. Long ago I figured out the amount of Social Security being paid and the health of the fund has a ton to do with how many people are paying into it. As our work force shrinks because of a dwindling population, how can we expect Social Security to survive?”
“Right!” he said. “And it’s not just declining birth rates. It’s AI!”
Stunned, I asked, “AI?”
He smiled and said, “Robots don’t pay into Social Security!”
I realized there would be no end to this discussion if we kept going. It’s complicated, and we could speculate about the future forever. People whose jobs are lost to robots aren’t just going to put their heads down and cry. They’ll find some other was to earn, and they will pay into Social Security. What else will have an impact? We can only wait and see.
The US suffered because of greed and errors in the mortgage lending institutions. Lenders offered to cover a mortgage that was 125% of the value of the home they purchased. Credit worthiness was not scrutinized. After the bubble burst and billions of dollars were lost, lending rules changed. Now, a substantial downpayment must be made to secure a mortgage.
Solutions for Reawakening the American Dream
I don’t want to be too specific here, but I have a few thoughts:
- Daycare should be under the umbrella of our education system. It should be provided just as kindergarten through 12th grade is offered. Let’s put qualified education professionals in charge of educating our children. Let’s get reading and math skills up to a level we can be proud of. Let’s provide support for kids as early as 6 weeks old. Let’s pay the administrators an amount equal to the importance of their charges.
Let’s not disparage the people in daycare now, but many are not qualified educators. If they want to stay in daycare, let them become credentialed. Eliminate the expense and the downfalls of our current daycare system.
We need a year-round solution!
- Lending rules need to change. Home ownership must be within reach for anyone willing to meet realistic qualifications. Banks should come up with a way to ensure values, and cover shortfalls. The previous disaster won’t be repeated by banks paying attention, and being realistic about approvals. But a required downpayment should not prevent a huge segment of our population for home ownership.
Exorbitant interest rates don’t help. I hesitate to mention the words, “national debt,” but the high debt is a major contributor to high interest rates. We need to bring down the debt!
Do you lay in bed, sleep evasive, while a ticker-tape of your finances flashes in your mind? Do you have kids, or do your kids have kids, or is it your friends’ kids you worry about? That millennial I talked with does. Home ownership, his kids finding a better life than he has, Social Security, eventual retirement—He has lost faith—and it hurts us all! We need to fix this!
What do you think???
