Mind the wealth gap
From Keith Moore of Sweden’s Gapminder Foundation comes a short Washington Post quiz on Americans’ prospects going forward:
Whether a person grew up in a crowded tenement building, at the end of a dusty road in farm country, or traveled over land and sea to get there, the promise of America was always a better life for its striving workers — and especially their children. That was the dream.
Today there is widespread skepticism among the public that the American Dream — however they personally define it — is still possible. For many, the notion that hard work can reliably lift people up and that the next generation will be financially better off is simply a relic of the past. But what’s the reality? Take our quiz and test your knowledge of the facts.
Five questions. I scored zero out of five. I guess that widespread skepticism struck close to home.
I should be angrier about the state of the American Dream. You should be angrier. But I’m worn thin trying to cope with fighting battles on too many fronts at once against people more cynical and far more ruthless.
Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
Americans have long believed their own hype the way evangelicals promise Jesus will answer all their problems. I once knew a believer who likely bought that hype until the night he set fire to his trailer, stuck a shotgun under his chin, and pulled the trigger. He survived disfigured.
Life can be harsh. But it’s harsher without a vision.
Hackneyed or not, that America Dream inspired my ancestors to relocate to these shores for a better life, and likely yours did as well. The Dream is facing a rough patch just now. The cynical, ruthless and power-hungry have abandoned both The Dream and keeping the law, leaving none of us happy. They’ve stopped us from helping each other build a beautiful tomorrow and instead have us fighting over table scraps. This country doesn’t need a come-to-Jesus moment as much as a comes-to-its-senses one.
We’ve been fighting amongst ourselves for so long that we’ve forgotten what we’re fighting for and what this country strives to mean. A friend reminded me this week of a fictional United States that needed reminding to find its way again.
Who is so cynical as to not get a little choked up?
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