NIKA LEANDRA'S BOOKS

What happened to the American Dream? Hello to everyone out there! The American Dream as I remember being taught in school about 30 years ago no longer has got anything in common with what has been going on here for a good while. According to my spouse, who grew up in this country, the American Dream was to be described as follows: Getting married young right after high- school, preferably to your first love, purchasing a small house, buying a car, having two kids on average, providing for their education, living a modest life as a full- time working husband and a house- keeping and children raising wife, and finally retiring and enjoying one's golden years among ones family, living happily ever after. This pretty much matches the picture that I was given by my English teachers long ago. Now that I am looking around me, I just cannot detect anything alike anymore. Nowadays this dream often shatters after the second child is born. Women can no longer afford the luxury of being a stay- home mum. Instead they, too, have to work now as one single income is often not enough to pay the monthly bills plus mortgage. Houses are still purchased, but unlike the good old times, folks prefer to live in far larger places. Builders, so my husband, are no longer willing to continuously build small places for reasons of profit making. The bigger the number of square footage, the bigger the bucks. Utility expenses on a monthly base plus incredible mortgage rates up to 30 years are adding up quickly creating immense per capita debts that are eventually running the entire US economy into the ground. Today mothers don't just raise their children but have to juggle multiple tasks such as household, job, education, their parents, and their husbands. Lots of the formerly sole bread winners can't make ends meet anymore and thus feel they have to take on more than just one job even though their debts are not getting any less. This kind of uphill battle just cannot be won ever! Kids are in school until 3 pm but are often not supervised once they get off the school bus because their parents are still at their work places. Consequently, especially in poorer families, many kids start roaming the streets becoming susceptible for criminal acts, or in less severe cases just fall behind in school. On weekends, nobody can really enjoy their free time as most kids are involved in some kind of sports games or competitions all year round. Needless to say that the budget which is hopelessly over- drafted already, is bled beyond any graspable number in the future by joining all those events on behalf of their best- equipped offspring. Should a couple make it through the teenage and high- school years together, more money will be needed for their college or university education. As a matter of fact, nearly 50% of all young wed couples end up getting divorced within only ten years. Okay, let's assume this one perfect couple is still together and has put 2, 3, or even more kids through higher education after high- school, honestly what are they left with after all is said and done? Exactly, debts up their necks! Many retirees can impossibly ever enjoy private senior home care because at the end of their lives there is often not enough money left for that. Lots of grown- up college graduates move back with their parents who frequently help out financially with car payments, student loans, child support, and so on and so forth. Is this the old American Dream in new clothing, I wonder, as there is clearly not much that reminds me of what it used to be.