Tornado Alley (PROG)

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a college dropout forms MSFT and makes 1000s of millionaires, a few billionairs, and the richest man on this earth

hap0206, people love to hear about success stories, and Bill Gates with Microsoft is certainly one of them. But that's not an example of the American Dream. It's an example of the business version of winning the lottery. You wouldn't use the lottery as an example of how functional the American Dream is, and neither should you use Bill Gates.

The American Dream is supposed to be available for anyone with a hard work ethic. It doesn't say that everyone will end up as a multi-millionaire, but it does say that you could come from parents of any class or stature, and as long as you work hard, you can still find a job, buy a house, and raise a family.

The problem I'm talking about is that not even this scaled down version of the American Dream is reaching many people. Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, even when they're employed. They are drowning in debt, and some are living out of their cars, or foregoing health insurance to pay their other bills. Sooner or later, this is going to catch up with the rest of the country, and you'll see a continued recession, as fewer people are able to afford the kind of lifestyle that drove our economy over the last several decades.

You can blame the government all you want, but the real culprit is the inequality between the wealthiest 2%, and everyone else.

name one, just one - union member who ever made a million

I don't know what you're arguing against. I never said that Unions help people to make millions. I said that Unions give workers representation in many cases where they have none, and it allows them to make the kind of Living Wage that allows them to live in a house, and raise a family.

There's no reason not to support that. When workers earn a Living Wage, they are great contributors to the economy. They buy the goods and services that keep local economies alive, and without a middle class who can support local economies, and buy the occasional luxury, local economies collapse.

That's why so many cities across America are hurting, and that's why you're not going to see a politician - from either side of the aisle - have an easy fix for that. They can lower taxes all they want - while increasing the deficit, or they can end all the government programs out there, and watch the economy tank even worse as the safety nets get removed, and even the struggling middle class collapses into poverty.

That's hardly a means to take this country forward. Until the inequity is addressed between the wealthiest 2% and everybody else, you'll continue to see this country struggle.