How Consumerism Killed the American Dream

What really killed the American Dream? This is a question often asked by conservatives who long for the idyllic lifestyle of old America in which everyone who did their part could afford a house, support a nuclear family on a single income, and ensure a prosperous future for their children. That lifestyle of the well cared for middle-class American has seemingly vanished, as has the idyllic suburbia of old America. What is the explanation for this outcome? The most basic answer: The death of the American community. Our sense of unity and codependence atomized by the hands of consumerism, materialism, and poor monetary policy which fosters a culture of selfishness, and selfishness comes at the expense of the country as a whole.

#AmericanDream #Economics #politics

Video Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:21 What was the American Dream?
1:00 Consumerism's Impact on America
2:16 The Fallout of Failing Consumerism

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[Wolfpack.politics]

“All you care about is money. This country deserves a better class of conservative. And we’re gonna give it em.”

[ohjackdiddly]

Stuff can never fill the spiritual void that this country is currently facing.

[greatkentuckian]

I talked to my dad about this and he agreed that consumerism ruined the American dream.

[AndrewM]

That's so sad to see. My parents used to own a local convenience store that did relatively well until a corporate chain store was planted just a block over our place. Customers stopped coming to our family store because they offered more specials we couldn't compete with. We eventually sold our business and my parents retired but it was sad seeing how a soulless corporate chain can come in any moment and suck the life out of a typical small business.

[Mr.E_z]

"Americanism not (Consumerism) will be our creedo!"

[natevince]

I am from Gen Z and I want to have a lifestyle where I know what hard work means. I grew up very comfortably in a nice LA suburb. I want to get back to my roots and do as my ancestors did in sustaining this national for the better and the long term.

[spark]

More like corporate greed killed the American dream.

[ImperiumMagistrate]

I feel the 1950s need to be called out more and not idolize so much

[psikeyhackr]

Notice that economists do not talk about planned obsolescence and the depreciation of durable consumer goods.
The make a Big Deal of GDP and almost never mention NDP. NDP is GDP minus the depreciation of Capital Goods like industrial robots and 18-wheel trucks. What has happened to the depreciation of durable consumer goods like automobiles and refrigerators since Sputnik?

Stuff that consumers buy that lasts more than 3 years and is thrown away is added to GDP but not subtracted. We are running the planet on defective algebra. Economists are morons or liars.

[SonofTiamat]

I think consumerism is a better descriptor than corporatism since the latter is an umbrella term that describes different economic philosophies. I comment this because I noticed the title change and think this is better

[PhantomSavage]

Unfortunately the effects of massive consumerism has irreparably altered the American work ethic and the kinds of labor Americans are willing (or able) to do has fundamentally changed from physical to mental. Americans are more than willing to sit in an office and send out boring emails and tediously calculate numbers for a decent wage, but they are NOT willing to work in a factory or an assembly line for the same wage or even more.

Even if we were to immediately make massive investments in American manufacturing and pass hard laws largely banning outsourcing and imposing workforce requirements that require American citizenship, the American people themselves would fight it tooth and nail... and to be perfectly honest, its hard to blame them. The picturesque vision of the atomic-era American family, living in a comfortable middle-class suburb with access to wonderful amenities and living essentials like education or good Medicare was largely paid for by the strong, now broken backs of the American industrial worker from the 1910's to the 1940's.

Industrial workers that, may I remind you, lived often short, hard lives in often terrible living and work conditions in textile mills that caught fire, coal mines that destroyed their lungs, or long assembly lines that took from them digits and even limbs from dangerous machinery, being yelled at by floor bosses that ran workers practically like slaves. The surge of production and industry that came about in the industrial revolution paved the way for the ideal of the Atomic family to live the comfortable, well-to-do lives they were able to live... and once Americans finally obtained that way of life, they rode the high of that comfortable living so hard and so long that it created an idea in the very core of our culture that "This is the way things are always supposed to be... this is the way America should be."

Problem is... in as little as 20 or 30 years, that high came crashing down, and now you had a generation of children that got to go to School on a nice school bus in fancy clothes and textbooks instead of having to walk across fields of cattle and rough neighborhoods in rags like their grandfathers had to do. To make things worse, considering it would be amoral to tell said new generation of children that they have to work like slaves like their grandfathers and great grandfathers did, the American parent tried securing their children's future by making plans to enroll their children in college and university before their babies even had a chance to walk or talk yet... they raised a generation of kids under the guise that "If you are educated and get a degree, you'll have a high paying job, and everything you could ever want will be yours!"

In reality, all college education did was make the process of getting a good job a more exclusive process, requiring certain accolades and years of experience to even apply to certain places in the workforce, further incentivizing families to enroll in exuberantly expensive education that can't afford it on the promise of a place in the workforce that is not guaranteed, taking on mountains of debt that would follow around student's lives well into their elderly years... the glitz and glamour of creative jobs in artistic fields of work and the promised high wages and stability of the kinds of jobs you get from Ivy-League education had the unintended effect of diminishing the importance of trade schools and the essential trades and professions a community needs to be self-sufficient.

The disillusionment of the American dream hit its hardest in the economic downturn of the 70's, and a generation of children whom were now adults realized that for one reason or another they had been lied to... lied to by their parents, lied to by the education system, and lied to by society's ideals in general. Easy living would not just be handed to you because of a nice degree or a good work ethic and pleasant attitude, and this fostered a sense of entitled resentment that made a powerful cocktail with the already prevalent lost trust in the US Government thanks to major historical events of the time such as JFK, Cuban Missle Crisis, Vietnam, and Watergate.. resentment that mistrust that would forever echo in the generations of American youths going forward.

Americans are no longer willing to strain and injure their bodies or shorten their lifespans in order to earn a decent wage, and the only thing that will change that would be a complete collapse of the economy as bad or worse than The Great Depression, where working is the only option you have outside of dying.

[avus-kwf]

It would be interesting to evaluate eliminating shipping containers as they destroy jobs and make long-distance trade cheaper which may hurts small community‘s Industry

[naguszed]

no i disagree. its not consumerism thats causing this. it's the bad money. its a fiat currency where the govt spends it first, not the consumer

[Donald_Xavier]

"A Conservative is one who wants to conserve his money, a National Socialist is one who wants to conserve his race" - George Lincoln Rockwell

[lilmayo]

Love this new animation style, keep up the awesome work!

[crusader]

I know you guys probably have a negative view of Corporatism, but that’s because what you’re thinking of is Corporatocracy, which has unfortunately been conflated with Corporatism, because of the word Corporate and taking Corporatism literally, when that’s not the case.


Corporatism comes the Latin word Corpus:Body and actual advocates for this system view society like a body where cooperation between the different parts (professions) is key to prosperity instead of a rabid dog eat dog mentality.

Each profession is represented through a guild where both employees and employers can meet and negotiate and plan to benefit both parties, now the businesses themselves are still run traditionally.

P.S. Corporatism is not inherently F**cistic, but rather Catholic Social Teaching is where this comes from too.

[christhejmedia]

The one thing to be cautious with a turn towards community economics is the very thin line between that economic philosophy and collectivism. Nothing wrong with being more community minded in what you buy, eat, sell, consume, etc. but when the focus is lost on that the community is made of individuals and moved towards "new unknown enterprise threatens us, use political power to quash it" we run the risk of descending into communism

[LeoMes]

Workers in America need socialism. Anybody who wants to learn more ask.

[TheRoseBoy]

Populist Anti-Establishment Right (Trump) 🤝 Populist Anti-Establishment Left (Tulsi)

"I hate the Corporate Consumerism in America."