I remember growing up in the Land of Opportunity. All a person had to do was "apply themselves, and then work like hell, to build a better future ..."
I haven't felt that way in a long, long time ... and apparently for some 'good', not so obvious, reasons ...
In Issue: July/August 2013 -- Saturday Evening Post
by Hedrick Smith [Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist]
[...]
We are literally Two Americas, remarkably out of touch with each other -- the fortunate living the American Dream but lacking any practical comprehension of how the other half are suffering, unaware of the enervating toll of economic despair on the unfortunate half, many of whom just two or three years before had counted themselves among the fortunate.The Pew survey documented a class split in America. Among the losers, the picture was bleak: Two-thirds said their family’s overall financial condition had worsened; 60 percent said they had to dig into savings or retirement funds to take care of current costs; 42 percent had to borrow money from family and friends to pay their bills; 48 percent had trouble finding medical care or paying for it. The psychological toll was heavy. By contrast, the other half, the relative winners, admitted to some problems such as stock market losses but described their woes as modest and manageable.
[...]In 1980, for example, 70 percent of Americans who worked at companies with 100 or more employees got health insurance coverage fully paid for by their employers. But from the 1980s onward, employers began requiring their employees to cover an increasing portion of the health costs. Other employers dropped company-financed health plans entirely, saying they could not afford them.
[...]The switch offered big savings for employers. According to pension expert Brooks Hamilton, the lifetime pension system cost companies from 6 to 7 percent of their total payroll, but they spent only 2 to 3 percent on matching contributions for 401(k) plans. Often those savings went directly into corporate profits and bigger stock options bonuses for the CEO and other top executives.
[...]
Foster:Idea of ‘two Americas’ true
by John D. Foster, news-journal.com, Longview Texas -- Nov 30, 2013
[...]
The article [Saturday Evening Post], based on Smith’s book, “Who Stole The American Dream?”, explains that a fortunate few carry on like before the Great Recession from 2008 to 2010, often blind to the millions who suffer with poor health coverage, weak job choices and chronic debt.“Over the past three decades, we have become Two Americas. We are no longer one large family with shared prosperity and shared political and economic power as we were in the decades following Word War II. Today we are a sharply divided country — divided by power, money, and ideology,” Smith wrote.
[...]“The psychological toll was heavy (for the losers). By contrast, the other half of relative winners admitted some problems such as stock market losses, but described their woes as modest and manageable,” Smith added.
The numbers tell a similar story. In 2008, American households lost $11.1 trillion, close to one-fifth of their total accumulated private wealth. More trillions evaporated in the next four years with housing prices falling steadily for five straight years. These staggering figures also dealt a blow to Americans’ psyche as their personal safety nets were shredded.
[...]
Who knew that pursuing the American Dream, would ultimately mean waking up to a dreary treadmill, in the Land of ever-expanding Quicksand ...