EARLY ACCESS: Why You'll Never Achieve The American Dream
Added 2024-05-16 22:23:09 +0000 UTCHowdy, friends! Does it ever feel like the whole "American Dream" thing we're all sold is...dead? There's a reason for that. Let's talk about what's changed, why it's changed, and what the future holds for our chances of upward mobility. Hope you enjoy!
Comments
It is a disease for sure - literally.
TD
2024-06-24 16:24:51 +0000 UTCMe too
TD
2024-06-24 16:23:32 +0000 UTCYES, this is what I'm talking about! Videos like this that can act as a relatable story of the american dream for younger americans so that I can share it with my normie lib friends. AND you have a call to action! Great video for sharing 👏💯 Let's win hearts and minds people!!
itsPiplup
2024-05-22 06:55:58 +0000 UTCHi you all, please consider Blocking / Boycotting and start where ever you can; https://youtu.be/xrFz8yGZJ6Y?si=Hiu5VYhseIKYe-9A
Michelita Smith
2024-05-17 22:04:59 +0000 UTCAnother great video. Yes, the Black Panthers were/are a great model for how to organise and what to prioritise. And their treatment a great warning..
BirdArvid
2024-05-17 18:39:52 +0000 UTCI'm at a loss why the fallout from the 1971 Lewis Powell memo cannot be mentioned in an episode perfectly designed for it.
Vangelo
2024-05-17 17:27:30 +0000 UTCThe law of diminishing returns: Investopedia says. The House Edge - No matter what game you choose to play, the odds of the casino winning your money are greater than the odds of you winning the casino's money. That's because all casino games are designed to provide the house with a built-in edge, diminishing the chances and sizes of potential payouts. [This is literally our plight with capitalism yet only a handful of us are ready to burn this sh down. BTW, it's not freedom no matter how they sweet talk it.]
TD
2024-05-17 16:22:36 +0000 UTCReally great editing in this one! Very dynamic and punchy. The entrance of Reagan made me laugh out loud. And great points as always. I live in Ireland, and while some of the details differ, the general economic trends here are much the same. We're going through the worst housing crisis in Europe, and yet once upon a time we had one of the most expansive social housing schemes in Europe. Our neoliberal turn came a bit later in the 90s and 2000s, but it's the root of much of our immediate problems today. The landlord class are deeply entrenched in the main political parties, and fascist elements are growing and being allowed to run rampant. I fear where all this is going, but there is also a huge socialist revival happening in tandem. Many of our revolutionary state founders were socialist, so the word does not have the boogieman connotations that it does in the US. But we still have a long way to go, and your channel has been a huge influence on me and my development of class consciousness. I've been recommending your videos to friends, so keep up the good work!
Aaron O'Neill
2024-05-17 11:19:12 +0000 UTCI think it's in the bible everyone is so keen on - the love of money is the root of all evil. The unrestrained profit seeking of today is a disease. A mental illness. It is literally driving all life on earth to extinction, and we're all letting it happen cuz change is hard and we've got more pressing needs like food and rent and the loss of civil rights. Sigh...it's all so very existential.
Just a girl
2024-05-17 08:04:31 +0000 UTCThe more I learn, the more it pisses me off. And the more it makes me need to see things change before I die. So I can die lol, so I can finally stop fighting.
Just a girl
2024-05-17 07:59:14 +0000 UTCI think he was just highlighting the fact that the median income is too little by half, and there are so many people who are so much further below the median (we're talking the 0 to 20,000 range vs the 74k median and 150k necessary for 'middle class' status. The homeless, the renters always at risk of eviction, the minimum wage earners, seniors, etc.
Just a girl
2024-05-17 07:54:18 +0000 UTCI'm dying to see a great example of how 'profits' is a measure of control. Michael Hudson - the economist - tends to tie in state control as a tool of profit. Profit as a term itself measures outcome but hides the brutality of control. Mind you - this is the USA - brutality is in the form of an office firing people from jobs - but that system is still in place by the threat of violence. Just a rant about the term 'profit'. Maybe profit should be a term like infection. What's the disease that causes profit? Maybe profit is truly just a sign of exploitation
Ivan A
2024-05-17 05:17:46 +0000 UTCThis bothered me too. I didn't understand the point. At first I thought he meant that over 50% of people are under the median line, which doesn't make sense, unless he's saying that there are a bunch of people who aren't included there. Or is median not a meaningful measure of central tendency so actually very few people are near the median? I'm not being super critical as much as just expressing some confusion, but it may sink in better after I rewatch it
Uardito
2024-05-17 04:42:48 +0000 UTCIt is a bleak topic and I am so glad that in addition to making it educational, you make it delightful from a visual arts perspective. I especially loved the tape label as the title for the conclusion. A nitpick is that the point about the median (6:08) does not sound logical to me the way that it is worded (though I understand the intent): half of the people are worse off than the median (by definition) but not "nowhere near" the median. Anyway, thank you for researching, writing, making and publishing these essays, they make the world better.
jh_in_sf
2024-05-17 04:21:32 +0000 UTCThank you for another huge piece of public service done masterfully. Second Thought for the win.
Mariana Espindola
2024-05-17 03:36:50 +0000 UTCWe are! The video will go up there tomorrow
JT Chapman
2024-05-17 01:18:46 +0000 UTCGreat work! Is Second Thought no longer part of MeansTV?
Dustin Gamblin
2024-05-17 00:08:01 +0000 UTCI get really pissed off on those in my age group (Boomers) who just don't get it -we had the advantage of lower cost/gov't subsidized education. And now, too many of the Boomers complain that younger people don't want to work in hard jobs such as farming, etc., Well, duh, they don't want to work for a wage that won't provide them enough to have decent housing, etc., People are not fools! When my spouse and I moved to Maine in 1990, they couldn't find work that paid decent and we just struggled on my salary as a federal employee and didn't have kids. We were only able to get a house because one of our parents gave us enough for a downpayment. Most people have never had these sorts of opportunities and I often feel guilty that we were able to get through this, esp. when I see younger people without many of the opportunities that we had.
Susan Luhrs
2024-05-16 23:32:44 +0000 UTCI see many people in my area (Lewiston/Auburn Maine) who are in my age group (younger boomers) who don't appear to be ever able to retire. And those younger than us are just plain screwed for the most part.
Susan Luhrs
2024-05-16 23:25:18 +0000 UTCI've never lived a life where my family has ever gone on a vacation a couple of times a year - grew up with a widowed mother and then I was married, I was the bread earner as we had moved to another state right in the middle of a recession. Yes, we have our own home which is paid for, and I've just retired (young Boomer, age 68), but we've never been on all kinds of vacations, etc, and really couldn't afford to have kids. Since I was a Federal employee, I'm lucky enough to have a decent pension along with Social Security (waiting to take it when I am 70), along with my Thrift Savings investment, but I really hope that sometime in the future, something happens to screw this all up and put us on the street.
Susan Luhrs
2024-05-16 23:18:40 +0000 UTCanother day another banger, thanks JT!
John Titor
2024-05-16 23:04:13 +0000 UTCBoomer math is outdated
Sleeper_Waves
2024-05-16 22:33:13 +0000 UTCThis is very personal to me, I’m an X-genner that lost everything during the 2008 financial crisis and can’t seem catch up since then. I totally feel the difference from before and after the 2008 financial crises. The COVID crisis and the resulting financial downturn since then has made it even harder. It feels like it keeps slipping away farther and farther. I’m lucky to buy a house by the time I retire. So much for the “American Dream “.
Javier Riccardi
2024-05-16 22:33:09 +0000 UTClol so she was telling me that I could by food in bulk freeze it to save $3-4 a week and that would have allowed me to pay for all the car repairs I had to get a loan for that cost $5000 in total.
Eric Edwards
2024-05-16 22:32:19 +0000 UTCYeah I hate this argument because they’re not grounded in reality
Brent
2024-05-16 22:29:39 +0000 UTClol this just reminds me of my mom and how she is always saying she doesn’t understand why we are struggling so much and it was not that bad when she was my age. Must be nice
Eric Edwards
2024-05-16 22:26:37 +0000 UTC
