Andrea Toochin
Business, work, and the path to and through the MBA.
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I found this on the Harvard Business School website. It touches on income changes over the years, an increase in the number of children living in poverty (the rate increased by 18% from 2000 to 2009, according to Annie E. Casey Foundation), and Americans’ inclinations to borrow to buy the standard of living they want, but can’t afford.
This reminds me of the whole “American dream” phenomenon and how it is a “dream,” as in, we can’t all have it. At least we can’t now that banks actually require decent credit and a 20% down payment. That reminds me of Harvard Law Professor and Author Elizabeth Warren and her book The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle Class Parents Are Going Broke, which is on my to-read list. She touches on policies that protect banks more than the people, unsavory mortgage practices, public education, and in general, failing social policies. But one issues that she touches on with co-Author and Financial Consultant Amelia Warren Tyagi is again the issue of Americans living beyond their means. One reason for this is the desire to live in a neighborhood with good public schools where they likely cannot afford the homes.
We as a nation are changing and might not again be the “superpower” we once were. Part of that is competition and globalization, part is regulation or lack thereof, and part is our fault for getting ahead of ourselves, for thinking we can get everything we want, when we want it. There are ways around the aforementioned issues, such as buying a condo in a town with good public schools rather than a home, but most want the privacy that is a home, and hence, the picket fence, the illusion of perfection. Maybe we need to embrace reality and realize there’s no utopia. Things aren’t what they seem, but they’ll be OK, eventually. In my opinion, just like they wouldn’t let the banks fail, we won’t let America crash and burn.
