I said to a friend last night "Remember when the "american dream" was to just be comfortable --->

[JohnMcCant2008]

enough to pay your bills, send your kids to college and be happy? Now our definition of "american dream" is measured by obnoxious levels of wealth."

I stand by my statement, but this morning I realized FUCK! I'm only 42 - am I even old enough to make "remember when" statements? Holy shit, has our culture and our values shifted that much in only one generation that I would have that perception or am I just truly getting old? Seriously.

Anyone else my age feel the same way, or do I need to put Depends on this weeks grocery list?

[skooooo]

1. I think the shift started in the 1980s...

...when the "greed is good" mantra came into fashion.

It's true. Nobody "needs" 1000 TV channels, satellite radio, a Wii, a Playstation 3, an SUV, an iPod, etc. etc.

I'm just a few years older than you.

[madokie]

2. it depends

:rofl:

[Warpy]

3. I can remember having moments like that by the time I was eight

"Remember when I needed somebody else to tie my shoes? Remember when I needed somebody else to get me dressed?"

Change is the human condition, get used to it.

However, it's easy to feel discombobulated in a Gilded Age. Just think of how the Gilded will feel when it ends, as it is doing now. It's their turn, that's all.

[marmar]

4. The way things are going, the American Dream is going to be to eat twice a day.....

:scared:

[JohnMcCant2008]

7. I really have faith now that we (the nation) will pull out of this even if we have to

drag the right wing along kicking and screaming.

But Obama is absolutely right when he say's that there needs to be responsibility at every level - gov, corporate AND as individuals and families. Pointing fingers and screaming for equality in "bailout money" will only get this country so far.

responsibility isn't something you "have", it's something you "do"

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. Remember when consumption was a horrible, lingering way to die?

Now it is national -- planetary, even -- economic policy.

[LynzM]

6. I'm 28 and I agree with you.

So I think it's not so much a matter of age, but of perception and priorities. :)

[demnan]

8. When I was a kid

I thought if I could just make 10K a year I would be middle class, that was true in the 60's. We had everything we needed. I never got overindulgent about things but now making $45 an hour is barely enough to make the mortgage and car payment.

[moggie]

9. Remember when kids stayed off your lawn?

I suspect the "remember when" impulse is universal. I'm a few years older than you, and I catch myself doing it, about all kinds of things. I seem to remember that some of the earliest writing deciphered complained about how everything was going to the dogs.

[JohnMcCant2008]

11. and don't even get me STARTED about the kids and their damn rock and roll records!

[moggie]

13. You know what I look forward to?

When I'm a genuinely old geezer, people of my age complaining about "music today" will have grown up on punk. We'll be all "call that music? They can play their instruments! There are more than three chords! Sid Vicious, now there was a real musician! Absolutely bloody clueless, the way it should be".

[JohnMcCant2008]

14. this thread just reminded me that 4 months ago, my 19yo daughter babysat our little one so my wife

and I could go to a Snoop Dogg concert.

I'm not even sure how to analyze this. Either I need to grow the fuck up, or I have really boring kids.....

:spank:

[moggie]

15. Did she tell you to be home by midnight?

[Lorien]

10. I'm 43 and I was thinking the same thing several years ago

My parents were academics and I grew up in a quiet suburb outside of the Ohio State University. Dad left mom for another woman, so we didn't have much in the way of "stuff" as kids. We didn't even have a TV. I remember that getting a new paperback book once in a while was a thrill. Keeping the old house repaired and functioning was a challenge (with three women in the house, we all had to learn carpentry, plumbing and electrical skills), but we never thought about a BIGGER house, or better clothes (ours came from thrift shops). We thought about saving for college a lot, and that was probably the biggest financial hurdle to get over. Life was about relationships, reading, spending time out in nature, pets, creativity...just not "stuff" and entertainments. The world has changed a LOT since the 1970s!

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

12. Used to be...

People worked or started a business to build a life. Then, it was to build a lifestyle.

That is a big place where things went wrong.

[Javaman]

16. actually the concept of the "american dream" started off as an ideal.

it wasn't really bastardized until post WWII into what it is today.

the original concept, which began to take hold with the westward expansion was to live free, have piece of mind and pray as you wish.

It really wasn't until the competition with the soviets that it began to transform into what we have today. Ironically, it was only during the red scare of the late 40's and the early 50's that it began to morph. prior to WWII, communism as a threat, was considered important but not a game changer.

but the battle of ideologies during the cold war put the final touches upon what the "american dream" should be marketed as; a house, a good job, 2.5 kids, a bbq in the backyard, unlimited spending on useless crap to support the corps and the military machine.