Editor: Crass Cash

Americans whether it be rich or poor often forget how good we have it.  I love to travel overseas and many times the poorer the better.  It may sound strange, but the reason is because it acts as a reset button for my personal life.  It grounds me.  It reminds me of how wonderful my life is.  

It's become a joke in this country as to how we complain about seemingly inconsequential things compared to people who live in abject poverty. Here's a great youtube video of "first world problems". 

To further express this take a look at these statistics to show how much Americans consume compared to the rest of the world and also compared to just 2 generations ago.  If you're wondering why you're broke, it's most likely because you buy too much shit!

http://www.becomingminimalist.com/clutter-stats/

Editor: Crass Cash

Due to transparency laws, we are now able to see a great deal about how much money our politicians make and how much they're worth.  How much somebody makes is a lot easier to determine an exact number vs how much somebody is worth because the value of an asset is generally subject to much greater assumptions than income is.  

With that said as you read the article you'll see that there are large variations in their net worth based upon certain asset classes.  On top of that I don't think they're required to give an exact amount for the asset, but instead they pick a range.  This makes since because not only can people attribute a subjective range to the value of an asset, but for instance the value of stocks and bonds can fluctuate considerably as well.  

http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/15/pf/obamas-money/index.html

Editor: Crass Cash

"The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth." -Wikipedia (couldn't have said it better myself)

Talking with a friend the other night she offhandedly remarked what amazing things a person can achieve in this country.  She was talking about her family and how she was first generation to be born here.  The family migrated here with little support and no money.  The litter of children that they had have achieved simply great things given the circumstances that they were born into.  Out of the 7, 4 have graduated from college.  So far one is a lawyer and another a doctor, with another one on the way.  The rest are successful entrepreneurs like their parents.  

On my mom's side my grandfather never went past an 8th grade education.  He was born to farmer's and eventually bought and ran a butcher store.  His daughter graduated from college and became a nurse.  I went as far as graduate school and work in administration.  

This is the rule, not the exception.  Can you find people mired in poverty for generations, of course.  I have yet to find one though where it wasn't due to their shitty attitude.  Now the question is, was this attitude responsible for their place or a result?

When I took sociology in college my professor told all of us that the American Dream was dead because the current richest person in the country came from a privileged background (Bill Gates) instead of a poor background like Sam Walton.  This was news to me.  He some how had taken it upon himself to define the American Dream his way and then set it as impossible standards.  Bill Gates's dad was a successful lawyer in Seattle, but he was by no means even close to being a billionaire.  Did Bill grow up with more opportunity than Sam Walton?  Yep!  But if you can't see the difference between a lawyer and the richest person in the world, you're a fucking retard!

Coming to this country so that your children can have it better than you is what it's all about  That doesn't happen in 5, 10, or 15 years.  It takes generations.  That's what it's been about for thousands of years.  Nobody wants to have kids and see them get bogged down in the misery of life.  There has to be a dream!