Strange

What's Your American Dream?

by Actual News Geezer | March 22, 2007 at 06:15 am

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Pretty much everyone around the world knows about the "American Dream." The good life. The one the world aspires to.

Living in Kazakhstan? too bad. Although there is undoubtedly a national Kazakh dream, no one else cares about it. The Paraguayan Dream? dream on.

And yet the American Dream continues to conjure up both reveries and resentments worldwide.

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Forbes.com is reaching out to its readers to create some user-generated content, as it's called in the media world, and is asking readers to answer the question, What is Your American Dream?

NowPublic thinks this is an extremely interesting question, and one that deserves more than the stock Darwinian answers about the merits of the free market system, or the fact that everyone can bootstrap themselves into the corporate boardrooms of the US.

Really: What's your dream for America? Here's a chance to really visualize an alternate universe. You might think about riffing on any of the following:

US foreign policy 100 years from now
The American Dream minus consumerism
The American Dream minus the polar ice caps
Americans free of the scourge of crystal meth

Let your imagination drift towards a range of alternate outcomes and write your own dream here. Let your friends know and encourage them to post their own musings.

If you include the tag, americandream, all of these submissions will end up at our American Dream page. Let the dreaming begin!

To kick off a yearlong celebration of the 10th anniversary of Forbes.com, we asked more than 60 great achievers to answer the question "What is the American Dream?"

We heard from Nobel laureates. We heard from best-selling authors. We heard from billionaire CEOs, famous actors and even one of the first men on the moon.

But we haven't heard what you think.

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Actual News Geezer

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 06:49 on March 22nd, 2007

Do you dream of a kinder, gentler America? a different sort of American presence in the world?

Whatever is your dream for America, please post it here.

Include the tag, "americandream" and it'll all be found here.

Bridget Cheng

at 08:20 on March 22nd, 2007

I'm not an American, I'm from Taiwan.

But there're something I really wanna know: what's American people's definition of "happiness"?

Living in America, do you feel owning the right of "persuit of happiness"?

Anyone can share your opinion?

Actual News Geezer

at 13:26 on March 22nd, 2007

Bridget you ask a great question.

Is happiness something that can be "pursued" or does it arise naturally when the right conditions are present? The answer to this may reveal something about the way various cultures think about it.

As an American, the slogan "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" is part of the constitutional guarantees the US grants its citizens. It brings up a vision of a purposeful life where the individual is motivated by self-directed actions - a life of action, individuality, survival, power, vitality...happiness being something that one chases in an active, powerful way.

Maybe I am overstating this. But I think in other cultures with a more community-based approach, there are other calmer notions of what happiness is - like the quiet acceptance of everything that life strews in our path, or, perhaps, a state of grace we achieve when our consciences are clear, we have performed our duties, we're surrounded in the quiet enjoyment of the fruits of our efforts.

What do you think?

rverspirit

at 15:58 on March 24th, 2007

In my dream of a future America the absurdity of the arms race would finally melt a way . Our notion of self protection has escalated to an unnerving and Kafkaesque level. The redundancy is really unsurpassed. The US outspends in next closest rival in arms spending 7 to 1. One tenth of our military budget would feed every hungry person in this country,provide healthcare for all,house every person in this country. One Tenth! In my dream we trade our 'big stick' down to say a baseball bat...and share some of the love with folks upon whose backs this country is built. In my dream multinational corporations no longer get huge tax breaks and subsidies while posting record profits and rewarding their ceo's with outrageously disproportionate salaries and bonuses.In my dream the salaries are directly proportionate to the rest of the company by a percentage scale. The tax loopholes are closed and a little more love is shared with us the working stiffs as our tax burden is lifted. In my dream schools can afford the supplies they need and nutricious breakfast and lunches are provided to all so they can think and problem solve to the best of their ability and hence have a much better chance to succeed at their studies and hence in their life circumstances.In my dream a government by the people for the people miraculously reappears. Not a government for the 'haves and have mores' (Tks to GW for that).In my dream America returns to its preeminent position as a beacon of hope and light in the world,not the devisive, despotic and undermining travesty it has become.In my dream ....In my dream......in my dream....