American Dreams

Chapter 75

I came to realize yesterday that the American dream is no longer a reality for many people. I know I know, I have read about it over and over, and I honestly thought it just media hype, because I live on a fraction of what most Americans think of as a normal wage, and so perhaps that has weighted my viewpoint far to the right about this subject.

But yesterday I heard grown men, age 30-60, asking for their paychecks with urgency. Not the urgency of an emergency, but the urgency of chronic living paycheck to paycheck. The problem that this reveals is that either these people are making too little or are spending too much, and since I know how much these men from yesterday make, I am leaning heavily on the “spending too much” side of this situation. These men make good money, have great benefits, are getting overtime hours every week, (and some of them are even my age!), and yet they are paycheck to paycheck dependent.

I feel badly for them. Wanting less is a crucial skill and attitude to develop as you grow older, and they are clearly struggling with that. They haven’t saved an emergency fund, they haven’t built some margin in their financial planning and more importantly in their checking accounts. They haven’t found the discipline to live with less and be content. These are not milestones you pass at some point in your life and never struggle with them again. They are skills and attitudes that you develop and reinforce your entire life.