People say that one of the unique components of the American experiment was the explicit enumeration of \u201cthe pursuit of happiness\u201d in the founding document of the country.\u00a0 And that\u2019s true but I think the more important situation is that to a much greater degree than elsewhere it actually was captured.\u00a0 I\u2019d say that the capture of happiness is the much discussed \u201cAmerican Dream.\u201d<\/p>\n
And I\u2019ll go further; I\u2019ll say that without the happiness there isn\u2019t anything worth discussing about America.\u00a0 The essence of this country is that it delivered on the dream.\u00a0 People who came here and put in the effort found actual happiness.\u00a0 And what was that happiness?\u00a0 In the last hundred and fifty years it was middle class status which means the wherewithal to raise a family above the poverty line.\u00a0 The definition of poverty has shifted over the centuries.\u00a0 Of late it means being able to afford shelter, food, clothes, education, communication, entertainment and transportation costs for a family of four.\u00a0 And nowadays that\u2019s quite a bit.<\/p>\n
But the general idea is that you make enough money to bring up your kids to be able to walk among equals in the town you live in.\u00a0 And that is the definition of happiness for normal human beings.\u00a0 And except for economic catastrophes like the Great Depression that expectation was within reach of even penniless immigrants who arrived here without even a command of the English language.\u00a0 But that situation is no longer the case.\u00a0 The younger generation are of the opinion that a middle-class lifestyle for them is an impossibility.\u00a0 And I contend that is why Donald Trump has twice been elected president.<\/p>\n
It’s not as if Gen Z likes his looks or rhetoric.\u00a0 He\u2019s the ultimate example of the man to whom they\u2019d say, \u201cOkay boomer.\u201d\u00a0 His views on women and foreigners are considered uncouth by the young.\u00a0 But he\u2019s promised to fix the economy so that they can afford to be grown-ups and move out of their parents\u2019 basements.\u00a0 So, the real question is; can he do it?<\/p>\n
Boy, I wish I knew the answer to this one.\u00a0 Sure, I want the answer to be yes.\u00a0 But it\u2019s a lot easier to move an industrial base to a new country when labor costs are effectively zero than it is to rebuild it in a place where labor costs and environmental regulations are huge negatives.\u00a0 It may be that he won\u2019t get enough time to rebuild it.\u00a0 But that is the bet.\u00a0 Donald Trump says he can restore the American Dream; restore the chance for a middle-class lifestyle for the majority of Americans.<\/p>\n
I find it an amazing thing.\u00a0 A man that everyone claims is just a flim-flam man and an opportunist has recognized that our present disastrous state is the result of the failure of the most fundamental characteristic of America; happiness.\u00a0 And diagnosed its remedy as restoring the means of a middle-class lifestyle to the common man.\u00a0 I think a case could be made that he\u2019s the only one in politics who isn\u2019t an opportunist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
People say that one of the unique components of the American experiment was the explicit enumeration of \u201cthe pursuit of happiness\u201d in the founding document<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[4168,4804],"class_list":["post-33305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-trump","tag-american-dream","tag-rebuild-the-middle-class"],"yoast_head":"\n