From Robert Whitcomb's "Digital Diary,'' in GoLocal24.com
The economist Robert J. Shiller, a Nobel laureate, had a thoughtful essay in the Aug. 6 New York Times headlined “The Transformation of the ‘American Dream’’. In it he provided a corrective to the idea, promoted by politicians going back at least to Ronald Reagan’s presidency and especially by Donald Trump, that it’s all about money. It's not surprising that Trump, with his vast, showy materialism (want some fake-gold faucets anyone?) would present the “American Dream’’ as all about fancy houses and earning millions.
Rather, Mr. Shiller reports, the term more traditionally referred to “freedom, mutual respect and equality of opportunity. It had more to do with morality than material success.’’
The phrase “The American Dream" was coined by popular historian (and prosperous former Wall Streeter) James Truslow Adams in his 1931 book The Epic of America. He described the American Dream as "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."
A tad different than Trump’s “The American Dream is back’’ remarks in January, which included “We are going to create an environment for small business like wehaven’t seen in many decades. So essentially, we are getting rid of regulations to a massive extent, could be as much as 75 percent.’’ Well, there may well be far too many regulations, but getting rid of 75 percent of them is unlikely to put us on the broad sunlit uplands of the American Dream, especially ones aimed at protecting public health and safety.
