American Dream, or downfall?

[Sorry its been a while. Travels, jobs/unemployment, life.. you know.
I'll be back at it from now on. Also, I'm still writing for Lucy Mag so keep your eyes their for posts as well. This is more of an opinion/reaction piece than my normal writing style, but please read and comment as always.]

It's appalling to think that after the largest day of sales in the United States, we finally officially announce that we're in a recession. That's right - a mere two days after Black Friday 2008, on the official Internet Black Friday, the federal government stated officially that the United States is in a recession. Some reports state that should things continue as-is, it will be the largest and worst setback since the Great Depression of the 1930s. No matter who would be stepping in as the next President, he or she would have one of the toughest jobs facing a president in their first few months in office ever.

It's amazing to think that we, almighty Americans, with our geocapital market and every-man philanthropical pipe dreams, might need to hold back.
It seems that our overzealous and nonchalant thoughts and beliefs of the market, economy, and our own pocket size have caught up with us. So maybe that extra eleven passenger four wheel drive SUV for a family of four is overkill - we certainly look good driving it. And my big screen TV surely isn't good enough, as its thicker than a bridged dictionary. And heck, while we're at it, this house is less prominent than I feel we should live in. Let's re-mortgage everything so we can really stand for what we want to. Onward [and upward], American Soldiers, marching in a row, right into Wal*Mart to trample an employee to death, just to save a few dollars even before the store opens. Or, for that matter, we'll just take our guns and battle it out.

For some reason, our college graduates are entering the workforce, if they can get a job, tens of thousands, if not hundreds, of dollars in debt. Oddly, they're the same group of people racking up credit card debt. Is it lack of education, training, understanding, mere nonchalantness? I'm not sure why our youngest generations have cell phones, and credit cards (or access to use them), and the latest edition of the newest gaming system - I don't remember ever having such things, or as many options, growing up, not because they didn't exist or we couldn't afford them, but because they are not essential. And I'm not too far off from these kids.

We've become obsessed with what we can have.
I've heard stories from friends, of kids stealing their parent's credit cards, reporting them stolen, and then later trying to reactivate them, for their use, at their convenience.
We've become obsessed with self growth and wealth.
A local grocery-store chain made an offer on a non-prime location, even over the asking price of the owners, but was denied the property because a "Supersized"', "Large", "Big", ... got it? ... grocery store more than doubled the offer from the local store, just to keep out the competition. The giant (get it?) chain had a store a few miles down the road, but could not see losing such an opportunity to shutout a business that clearly could not compete.

Our proud-to-be-American car companies have known for years that foreign competition was brining smaller and more versatile options to the market. It's obvious - my second car (in 2000) was a mid-80's VW that was dwarfed by the majority of domestic cars from the same time period. That's not to say that the car companies weren't making what demand asked for, but it is to say that maybe a little foresight is better than hindsight. Now we're faced with the dilemma of a flailing (and failing...) American auto industry and its owners and CEOs. If it were a small business, like my friend's local market, most owners would dump their lives into their businesses to keep them afloat and save them. Yet, here we are with the bigwigs of the auto industry asking the federal government for help from their private jets. I don't think they'll be selling their Italian leather shoes and Persian suits, let alone their private jets and getaways, to save the companies they represent. But represent they should.

If I remember correctly, GM announced more than a month ago, that the production of most SUVs, trucks, and even the Hummer brand, would be downsized or even cut. Yet we're seeing more and more 2009 and 2010 models being released, and plans for future SUVs and trucks in the making. Some car dealerships are offering "buy one get one free" deals with their large vehicles. The last thing I bought with that offer was a box of cereal, if I remember correctly... My point is this - we're able to offer such deals in the auto industry, or the housing market, or the banking with financing, loans, etc., yet now we're surprised we're sinking in a rut? I think it's obvious that our lifestyles have led us to our demise.

I'm not sure when these ideals took over our nation, our way of life. Sure we've always been the best of the best, topping out the top of... you name it. But when did our stupidity outrun our ideology? Why must we have the newest, greatest thing, just to get by? But yes, on top of all of this, we're finally realizing that maybe we should hold back, maybe we should be frugal and thoughtful on our spending and gluttony. And when we decide that maybe we should not be so thoughtless with our spending and we actually find the bottoms of our pockets, it's too late - we're failing to uphold what it means to be American, and our economy plummets. It seems that maybe we've woken up from the American Dream, and we've realized the realities of its dark corners.