Sorry if you live in these US counties. Hopes of the American dream are long gone for you. Dead.

[Twilight Hue]

Counties Where the American Dream Is Dead

It really makes you seriously wonder what first world really means when you look at all the ever-growing rot in this country.

 

[Rival]

This is why it's called the dream, not the reality.

 

[BSM1]

The "American Dream" can only die if you allow someone to convince you of it's demise...

 

[Revoltingest]

The "American Dream" can only die if you allow someone to convince you of it's demise...

Reminds me of the old saying attributed to Henry Ford....
Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right.

 

[Sapiens]

Look at the counties listed ... mainly deep south and a scattering of northern mid-west and special cases. In any case, places where the American dream never really took root to begin with.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

I wonder what the findings would look like for 26-year-olds from the highest income quartiles in those same counties...

 

[Polymath257]

The US is no longer a first world country. It falls behind essentially every other developed country on almost every scale.

Our educational system is third world level for high school and below and falling fast at the college level. We are still doing well at the graduate level.

Our life expectancy is low.

Our health is low.

Our health care costs are astronomical.

Our political system is failing.

The American Dream was a possibility as long as we kept up our education and as long as every other place in the world was destroyed by war. Now *we* are the backwater.

 

[Duke_Leto]

Of course. Unions have been systematically dismantled, the minimum wage has remained stagnant since the 70s, the cost of education and medical services has skyrocketed, and housing is treated like an investment. It's no wonder we're struggling.

 

[Father Heathen]

I hate sites that break a single article into multiple pages just to inflate hits.

 

[Flame]

Look at the counties listed ... mainly deep south and a scattering of northern mid-west and special cases. In any case, places where the American dream never really took root to begin with.

Also, for mostly my state, they are all counties firmly within reservations. Poverty is a hard to escape circle there.

 

[sun rise]

It really makes you seriously wonder what first world really means when you look at all the ever-growing rot in this country.

Look at the counties listed ... mainly deep south and a scattering of northern mid-west and special cases. In any case, places where the American dream never really took root to begin with.

The divide between the "haves" and the "have nots" is continuing to get worse. This article was about those on the bottom sinking further. I just read another about how those on top are doing better and better.

This divide can't continue forever. Sooner or late there will be a gentle or violent redress. We could become a Venezuela which was caused by those in the bottom getting some help at the cost of the country's economic system, for example. We could see a more positive outcome.

 

[Audie]

The US is no longer a first world country. It falls behind essentially every other developed country on almost every scale.

Our educational system is third world level for high school and below and falling fast at the college level. We are still doing well at the graduate level.

Our life expectancy is low.

Our health is low.

Our health care costs are astronomical.

Our political system is failing.

The American Dream was a possibility as long as we kept up our education and as long as every other place in the world was destroyed by war. Now *we* are the backwater.

It all works fine for me.

 

[Stevicus]

Counties Where the American Dream Is Dead

It really makes you seriously wonder what first world really means when you look at all the ever-growing rot in this country.

Don't know when things went wrong,
Might have been when you were young and strong.

 

[Father Heathen]

 

[lostwanderingsoul]

Main problem is that too many people want the "dream" handed to them on a silver platter. No one wants to work for it. Drop out of school. Try drugs. Do whatever feels good. Then when you hit bottom expect the honest working people to pay taxes that pay for your needs.

 

[Revoltingest]

The US is no longer a first world country. It falls behind essentially every other developed country on almost every scale.

Our educational system is third world level for high school and below and falling fast at the college level. We are still doing well at the graduate level.

Our life expectancy is low.

Our health is low.

Our health care costs are astronomical.

Our political system is failing.

The American Dream was a possibility as long as we kept up our education and as long as every other place in the world was destroyed by war. Now *we* are the backwater.

Third world country?
Don't let dwelling on problems we have lead you
to think we're in da terlit with coprolitehole countries.
Cheer up....some things are still good.

Political system:
It endures, despite cries that the sky is falling.
I'll wager your left one that the 2020 election proceeds without a coup.
Sure, sure, we'll dislike the eventual nominees, but this is usually the
case. And we have the liberty to carp about them without sanction.

Education system:
Aren't you part of that? <snicker>
Where I live, we have foreign students flocking to the local university.
Were it so bad, I doubt that would happen.

Space program:
Name a country with a better one.

Life expectancy:
List of countries by life expectancy - Wikipedia
Still 1st world, even if many are a few years better.

Culture:
Game Of Thrones & Archer are back on the air.
And a Deadwood movie is in the works.

 

[Revoltingest]

It all works fine for me.

It's all about proper attitude.
You & I have each endured some stress,
yet boundless optimism let's us sally forth.

 

[Father Heathen]

Main problem is that too many people want the "dream" handed to them on a silver platter. No one wants to work for it. Drop out of school. Try drugs. Do whatever feels good. Then when you hit bottom expect the honest working people to pay taxes that pay for your needs.

Because life is a 1980's after school special.

 

[Audie]

Third world country?
Don't let dwelling on problems we have lead you
to think we're in da terlit with coprolitehole countries.
Cheer up....some things are still good.

Political system:
It endures, despite cries that the sky is falling.
I'll wager your left one that the 2020 election proceeds without a coup.
Sure, sure, we'll dislike the eventual nominees, but this is usually the
case. And we have the liberty to carp about them without sanction.

Education system:
Aren't you part of that? <snicker>
Where I live, we have foreign students flocking to the local university.
Were it so bad, I doubt that would happen.

Space program:
Name a country with a better one.

Life expectancy:
List of countries by life expectancy - Wikipedia
Still 1st world, even if many are a few years better.

Culture:
Game Of Thrones & Archer are back on the air.
And a Deadwood movie is in the works.

The better things are the more ol' doom n gloomers
will hold forth- staff upon yon hill, robes
billowing in the rising wind. Beware, oh beware, for lo,
verily doth Godzilla, grim and importunate, descend even
now on fiery wing, to wreak doleful destruction upon ye,
Oh my Babylon!!

Some of our oh-it-is- so-dreadful folks really outta go
hang for a spell, chill, in Cameroon, Chad, Myanmar,
N Korea, or even some nice places like Mongolia or
Equador!

 

[Polymath257]

Third world country?
Don't let dwelling on problems we have lead you
to think we're in da terlit with coprolitehole countries.
Cheer up....some things are still good.

Political system:
It endures, despite cries that the sky is falling.
I'll wager your left one that the 2020 election proceeds without a coup.
Sure, sure, we'll dislike the eventual nominees, but this is usually the
case. And we have the liberty to carp about them without sanction.

You really can't deny some decay there. The simple fact that nothing can get through Congress no matter which party is in power says something.

Education system:
Aren't you part of that? <snicker>
Where I live, we have foreign students flocking to the local university.
Were it so bad, I doubt that would happen.

At this point, the decay is about at the first year of undergraduate school. We can still field people to teach others, but there is a severe problem before college.

I've watched a serious decline over the past 40 years. That 'Nation at Risk' report from the 80's was spot on. And ignored.

Space program:
Name a country with a better one.

Hmmm....since we don't have any heavy lifters of our own, pretty much every space fairing country. The good thing is our companies seem to be taking up the slack.

Life expectancy:
List of countries by life expectancy - Wikipedia
Still 1st world, even if many are a few years better.

I'm not sure if you are reading the same list I am. We are at 31 out of 183, putting us just ahead of Cuba and behind Greece, Cyprus, and Slovenia. To me, that isn't first world.

Culture:
Game Of Thrones & Archer are back on the air.
And a Deadwood movie is in the works.

American culture has always been a bit of a contradiction in terms.