Author: Kera Bartlett
As a senior with mere weeks to go before graduation, I have found myself thinking about what kind of life I imagine for myself once I enter the “real world” and pop my Oxy bubble. However, the high hopes I had even a year ago have been tempered by the current economic crisis.
This recession has engulfed our world and exposed the fragile financial system our parents’ generation fostered that has since self-destructed. Six hundred thousand jobs were lost in January alone and the gross domestic product shrank 3.8 percent in the final quarter of 2008, amounting to the worst contraction in almost 30 years. We are entering the job market at a humbling time of economic uncertainty to say the least.
In my quest to set expectations for myself post-graduation, I recently read and was struck by an article in Vanity Fair titled “Rethinking the American Dream.” This is a term all of us are familiar with, but it is a concept that can mean different things to many people. As author David Kamp explains, “The American Dream was now almost by definition unattainable, a moving target that eluded people’s grasp; nothing was ever enough. It compelled Americans to set unmeetable goals for themselves and then consider themselves failures when these goals, inevitably, went unmet.” At a college with its fair share of overachievers and where BMWs, Lexus’ and designer clothes are a frequent sight, I believe we can all see the sentiments of this statement illustrated on our college campus, as well as in the greater society in which we live.
So what is the American Dream? As Kamp references and many of us have been conditioned to strive for, it is that each successive generation in the United States must live better than the one that preceded it. This usually includes high levels of education, owning one’s own home and attaining a new level of material luxury. This idea is still crucial to immigrants who have arrived here in search of a better life along with the millions of Americans struggling in poverty.
However, the “American Dream’s” main commercial tenants are no longer applicable to an American middle class, who live more comfortably than any version that came before it. Instead, the American Dream has degenerated into (or, more precisely, become mistaken for) a consumerist nightmare. The amount of outstanding consumer debt in the U.S. has gone up every year since 1958, and has increased 22 percent since 2000 alone.
Young Americans, it’s time to redefine our guiding values. Let’s become generation sustainable, not just environmentally, but as consumers. Let’s embrace a goal of a sustainable middle-class way of life, where we pay off our credit card bills every month, where we won’t buy that house with 2 extra bedrooms we will never use or choose to live an hour’s commute away from our jobs.
Let’s stress cultural enrichment, instead of conspicuous consumption. Let’s retain the noble goals of higher education (only 28 percent of Americans have completed a Bachelor’s degree) or the ability to be more philanthropic.
We should always push ahead and innovate to increase efficiency and make technological improvements for the betterment of society and our planet. The task of updating America’s infrastructure, communities and businesses for the realities of the 21st century is daunting, but it will ensure there is another generation after ours. Along these lines, we must recognize and abandon this insatiable need for simply more stuff. Ignore those Bank of America commercials that say that we’re a nation of consumers. If we learn anything from the previous generation, it should be to live within one’s means. It’s not only more logical and safe, but it may soon be our only option. We must come to terms with the debt burden Americans have amassed and we will be required to bear.
Kera Bartlett is senior DWA major. She can be reached at kbartlett@oxy.edu
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