Falling off the economic treadmill

(Rishi Menon/Creative Commons) After World War II, a simple idea settled into the American character if not the American body politic. It goes like this: If you are willing to work hard and play by the rules, America is a place where an you can achieve success in any endeavor. Implicit in this idea, this American Dream if you will, is the idea that what success means is up to each individual. If success means a lot of money in the bank, you can get that. If it means uncovering the secrets of the atom, selling flowers, publishing a book, getting elected to public office, raising a child, or finding God, America is the place were any person with a little moxie could succeed. This also implies the inverse: If you don't achieve success, however you define it, there is something wrong with you, not America. Hold this thought. I have a brief story to tell.

I have a friend from a previous job who is, by my reckoning, a fairly typical Midwestern White American man. He grew up with the things you'd expect: parents, suburban house, not much money but enough to eat and change clothes every day. Pop culture, high school football, etc. He served in the Navy and worked through college, got married a couple of times and is raising two kids. We've kept in touch over the years through a mutual love of boxing, which brought about a long overdue phone call about the big fight this weekend. We talked boxing, bills, children, a little politics. then things turned personal via my invitation. The last few years have been rougher than some previous, at least in financial terms. Like so many others in this country, he's fallen in to the trap of unemployment, foreclosure, and bad credit. He's at a loss figuring out why he hasn't been successful.  I had already known about some of the troubles from my last visit to his house in Reading, PA. Just recently things had gotten worse. I enjoy talking, but as an aspiring writer, I enjoy listening even more. "I feel like I've been running on a treadmill and just fell off," he said.

Now you and I, the politically well informed, know about all the things that have happened over the past 30 years and especially the past four or five. We know about how the decline of unions, the decline of inexpensive education, globalization, free trade, deregulation, and technology have all contributed to the substantial decline of upward mobility in this country. We know that factors beyond my friend's control are the primary factor in why he's a statistical norm and not a statistical asterisk. We want to put a bunch of policies in place to fix those numbers. Others believe these things are self correcting. But what do you tell someone like my friend who believes his falling down is his fault? How do you explain to him why it is some folks manage to remain intact in these times, while others do not? Perhaps we need to take a look at the basic tenet set forth in the American Dream.

What is the policy that will fix the American Dream? I don't mean the policies that will repair what the American Dream is meant to provide, but the very idea of the American Dream itself. My friend probably thought at some point that he too could climb up into the sky and go to the moon as an astronaut. But in actuality, the path there was and will remain the province of a select few military engineers and others lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time. You yourself may have thought that daydreaming about being president meant that all you had to do was work toward it and boom! You're in the oval office. But alas, most of those who dream of being president will never actually see it happen no matter how hard they work toward it. However, a few will get there. Why them and not you? Our national ethos doesn't take into account the whims of fate and luck. In my view, these are the things that govern our lives far more than how hard we work or our national policies.

Who we are as a people is not just the age old debate about the role of government and individual liberty, although those questions certainly spring from it. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have been our North Star since the beginning. Perhaps we need to add "good luck" to our national ethos. Obviously we cannot legislate good luck, but we can mitigate the effects of bad luck. We could put in place policies that do this with a better, more functional political system. More important, in my view, is teaching our people that not everything is a merely a matter of legislation or self-improvement. That fortune plays a key role in where we are born, to whom we are born, and the opportunities and adversities that come our way throughout. Sometimes people just draw a bad hand. When they do, we should help them because it could happen to any of us. But none of us should feel like my friend, that every national calamity is a personal failure of some sort. Hermain Cain's famous edict "if you're not rich, its your fault" is lacking in a world where often things are beyond any individual's control.

I thought a lot about my friend, recalling the last time I saw him. The bags under his eyes. The worn sneakers with holes in them. The look of weariness on his face. Eyes with some glint of hope, but saddened by feelings of inadequacy and failure. The hurt and slight anger as he reluctantly accepted my $20 bill. He needs a a good night's sleep, if not several. There should be a morning when he can examine his running form and check the mechanics of the rollers. Then get back on that treadmill. I told him so: "With a little luck, you'll find a job. But right now, go home and go to bed." Our country could use a good night's sleep. Some self reflection on our creed. Policies that at least somewhat tame the whims of fate. And a bit of good luck.