“The American Dream”…..
The term was first expressed by historian James Truslow Adams in 1931 as “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.”
The American Dream is a national ethos in which our democratic society is seen as the source of the promise of prosperity. It has become a synonym for home ownership, since homes are seen as a status symbol derived from such prosperity. While it is arguably true some have been prevented from pursuing the American Dream due to racial or societal injustices, it does not make it so that the government should step beyond legislating equal housing opportunity by ensuring home ownership across America. These are two entirely different things.
One’s “ability or achievement” most often leads to the realization of the American Dream. And while we should strive for a society void of in equity, it doesn’t mean we must provide equal access to house ownership for those who do not have the economic means to acquire it. Yet this is precisely what the government has done over the years, with the introduction of affordable housing programs, by pressuring banks and the mortgage industry to provide a wider variety of credit, and by creating insurance programs to use taxpayer money to reimburse investors for a portion of their losses in the event an affordable housing market goes south.
This, combined with the explosive growth of the subprime credit industry, contributed to the housing bubble by helping to artificially inflate housing prices and by putting people into homes that they could not afford.
The American Dream was never meant to imply everyone should own a home. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t meant to imply home ownership at all. In reality, it resulted in overinflated expectations that were mistakenly taken on by government to provide to its citizenship and later used by the free market as a concept upon which to capitalize.
As declared by our founders, our Creator has bestowed upon us certain inalienable rights, including “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Society’s connection of happiness to material possessions and the misapplication of the thinking behind the term “The American Dream” are at the root of what has led to economic disaster.
