The American Dream

Since I didn't grow up in the US, I've often wondered exactly what the American Dream is. I have several ideas, based on my experiences here:
Owning a car
Owning a house
Freedom (along the lines of the Bill of Rights)
Owning a business
Having a family with 2.4 children
Or a combination of the above

It seems to be a difficult thing to define. It depends on who might be trying to sell you a product, and whatever it might be, it is probably being revised to suit our current financial situation. Maybe these days, the American Dream should be having a place to live and a job to support you. George Carlin once famously said that it was called the American Dream because "you have to be asleep to believe it".
So many of our products are sold to us on the basis of what they will tell others about us, or that we will achieve a certain milestone in life, and yet if we think about it, we can see that much of it means nothing.  Sure, we can own a car and a house, but if they are not the biggest and best available (or at least better than our friends' or coworkers'), does it really mean that we have failed somehow? Doesn't it just mean that we paid more? We talk about a work/life balance (notice how the two are separate), but do we really think about how much of our earnings, or how many hours of our lives, goes to pay for the latest phone, the more expensive car, the 500sf of our house that we never use, or the credit card and mortgage interest?

The Living Dead

The topic of consumerism has been on my mind again recently, and I discovered an interesting (and short) film which i thought I'd share:



This topic of consumerism and indoctrination has been discussed on the big screen for decades. When we watch the classic, Network, it feels so relevant today because little has changed! Freedom of choice, when it is between 100 brands of fabric softener, is no choice at all. If our lives are centered on consumption, we enter into an endless cycle of work, shopping, and debt. We are complicit in the destruction and pollution of our natural resources. We are ignorant of what happens 'behind the scenes' while we are busy buying things we don't need.

I have been challenged to add something positive, and to give some resources for those who want to make a change.  I'll start with a couple of great websites. The first is Adbusters , and the second is Mother Earth News .
A positive step which anyone can take is, after reading a blog or watching a film or just drawing your own conclusions, to pass the message on. After all, consumerism is about illusions. Free (and truthful) information is a sign of true freedom, not the disease of mindless consumerism.

I've posted this before, but it fits this topic perfectly - The Story Of Stuff:

IOUSA

Here's an interesting video which I discovered yesterday:



It explains the financial situation in the US quite well!