Is The Party Really Over?

Michael Manson's very thoughtful piece, The American Dream Is Killing Us, is one of those articles that casts a gloomy pall over where we're heading as a country. Published, certainly not by coincidence, just in time for our upcoming election, it forces the critical question - are either of our presidential candidates really addressing the underlying structural issues affecting our country and our economy?

Manson's premise is that Americans were dealt an exceptional hand of cards that served us very well for nearly 300 years: unlimited land, unlimited cheap labor, unlimited innovation and geographic isolation. This incredible stroke of good fortune gave birth to the American Dream. And it worked for generations.

But, per Manson, those cards were largely played out somewhere in the latter half of the 20th century. It didn't happen overnight, but today the evidence is becoming increasingly clear:

• An eroding middle class which has declined as a share of the overall population every decade since the 1970's and now has the lowest share of aggregate income since records were started in 1970 according to Pew Research.
• A young generation that is more educated than ever before, yet 25% of people with college degrees don't have a job or aren't even looking for one.
• 25% of Americans with no savings.
• Real wages that have been stagnating for 50 straight years.

Economic mobility in the US is lower than almost every other developed country according to the Economic Policy Institute and though President Obama can boast about reducing unemployment levels, the sad facts point out that job growth has occurred primarily in low paying, low skill jobs or from people who have permanently left the work force.

Manson doesn't offer answers, but then again I fear that our presidential candidates don't either. One candidate offers up promises that can't be fulfilled or won't work, the other offers up the same book with a different front cover. I fear neither has the will or the courage to find the answers.

It's time to face the music America. Maybe Manson was right that we were given incredible advantages and maybe we took what we were given for granted. But the American spirit is real. I'm reminded of that every time I travel abroad. Let's hope that we have the courage to make the tough choices that lie ahead. Only that will make America great again.