The American Dream is slipping away

The tradeshow business won’t recover to its pre-recession levels until we address the larger problems facing our country. Right now we’re involved in three wars, have massive budget deficits and a political climate characterized by gridlock by the party out of power. Lack of progress may be bad for the well being of the country as a whole, but absolutely essential for the ambitions of certain individuals.

All of this has created a lot of anxiety within the general public and no significant progress will take place until logic and reason replaces the befuddled state we’re now in. Unfortunately, most of our problems have no easy answers. The problems in our economy have been ignored for far too long, and the longer we continue to put them off, the more daunting they become.

A lot of average Americans have given up hope on trying to do better than their parents, they would be happy if they could achieve what their parents took for granted as the American standard of living. For many, the American dream is slipping away and this frustration leads to a desire to make sense out of all of it. But searching for simplistic answers to complex issues rarely results in anything except self deception.

The focus of this frustration has unfortunately zeroed in on the wrong culprit. They’ve chosen the most visible target instead of the one most responsible for their plight. The true villains quietly fly under the radar while the “little people” scratch each others eyes out.

The most powerful people and organizations have known this for centuries, and this is why they are able to maintain their grip on the upper rungs of the socioeconomic ladder. At any given time, they are successful in convincing half of the general public to attack the other half and this reinforces their elitist belief of the divine right of their own superiority.

Examples of this are everywhere, but perhaps the one of the most relevant is the attack on public workers across the country and the bigger issue of the collective bargaining process. Yet surprisingly, many see this as a rational response to a crisis situation of budget shortfalls.

Perhaps they haven’t realized that in many cases, the budget problems the states face is the result decreased revenue resulting from tax breaks to wealthy individuals and corporations. At the same time we question our ability to care for our elderly or disabled citizens, we provide generous subsidies to oil companies making record profits, a group that has no allegiance to any one country.

It’s been suggested tax breaks for the wealthy encourage job growth and economic benefits for everyone, yet these tax breaks have been in place for 30 years and while the wealthiest have benefited, the decline of the middle class during this same period has been well documented. The absence of empirical evidence to substantiate this theory doesn’t diminish its effectiveness in manipulating gullible people.

Why does the middle class routinely support programs that accelerate their own demise? They aren’t evil or unconcerned about providing for their families, then why do they put their future in jeopardy by voting against their self interest?

Taxing billionaires, pensions for fire fighters and universal health care won’t result in groups of gay, flag burning, satan worshipping, abortionists who are going to kick in your door and take your guns. So get over it people. The middle class better wake up and realize rich folks aren’t going to let you into their club… so stop doing their dirty work for them.