The American Dream

I've been hearing a lot lately about The American Dream. This being the gold standard politicians drag out when bitching about the way they see America right now. John Boehner gets weepy about The American Dream when saying tax cuts for the richest 2% needed to stay in place.

Seems to me the richest 2% have achieved The American Dream. This dream is to be Uber-Rich, right? And fuck the little guy, the middle class. But that's another subject...

But is there a French Dream? An Australian Dream? An Indonesian Dream? A Russian Dream? I don't really know enough about foreign politics to know if politicians in other countries have a phrase like, The _______ Dream. They very well could. It's an awesome thing to make people long for a time they think was less difficult. They think it was less difficult because they were kids and their parents never let them know things were tough. Don't scare the children...

Do the French, Australians, Russians think they are entitled to The Dream? That life should be easy? Or is that a uniquely American thing? We have a very high opinion of ourselves. We are exceptional! If you look at how we rank in the world for education, we are not exceptional. Except in one area. We have the highest self esteem. Self esteem without talent or intelligence to back it up is vacuous arrogance.

But enough about politicians...