America - The American Dream

Or, as the BBC puts it, "Stark reality of the American dream".

With that headline Humphrey Hawksley sets you up for the "two Americas" argument that John Kerry and John Edwards used in their failed bid for the White House. That argument says that there are two Americas - the have and have nots. The problem with the argument is that John Edwards was walking proof the argument is bogus. Edwards rose from humble beginnings to rich lawyer, proving the American dream is there for all - who work for it.

So, where does Hawksley go in search of the American dream?

I had chosen Seattle not only because Starbucks was created there, but also because Microsoft and Amazon Books and Boeing airliners all come from this small city. Dreams, if you want, which began small but are now global brands.

And who does Hawksley talk to? People "at a charity for the broke and homeless".

Talk about being set up! What Hawksley rushes past here is the fact that the highly successful companies he mentioned employ thousands of people from all walks of life and social status. All employ janitors, Directors and all that's in between. And what's more, janitors can move up to become Directors.

Now that you've been set up, Hawksley falsely makes this claim:

They had queued up since five, registered in case there was any work, then ate while security guards watched over them in case there was trouble.

In Europe or just across the border in Canada, they would get social security, but this was America, where society is starkly divided into winners and losers.

That's nonsense. There are down and out losers in every country but America certainly isn't starkly divided as Hawksley maintains. There is a huge range of incomes in the US and upward mobility is not only easy, it's encouraged.

Strangely, though, there seemed to be little resentment or blame of government. American culture is about self-reliance and the individual fighting a way through.

Hawksley is frustrated his charges aren't going along with his plan. According to Hawksley's model, the US is starkly divided between have and have nots and it must be the haves, the government, that are keeping it that way.

But, "strangely" to Hawksley they don't blame the government. Why should they? They know it's not the government's fault. And while Hawksley tries to deride the American system in favor of the Canadian or European ones, he fails to learn all that America offers its poor and down and out.

Hawksley didn't come to America to find out if "the idea that the United States is a place where anything is possible". He came with an agenda to prove.

And Hawksley seems perplexed at why anyone would want to move to America.

Yet millions still yearn to come and take up the challenge.

A million a year settle to start the process of becoming American citizens. Half a million actually take the oath.

Those are the legal ones, the number is probably two to three times that many if you count the illegal ones.

And they come from around the world.

They came from everywhere: Britain, France, Iran, Iraq - the name of every country read out, to cheers, as if we were at the Oscars and, of course, the waving of American flags.

Hawksley obviously doesn't think patriotism counts for much. Many in Britain are starting to rethink their attitudes towards patriotism in the wake of the London bombings. Hawksley and the BBC are not among them.

"Why do you want to live here and not in Europe?" I asked a young woman from Ethiopia, who tipped back her Seattle Mariners baseball cap and looked at me as if I were completely mad.

"Europe," she said disdainfully.

"What do they ever hope for in Europe? Here they have a law that you can dream to be happy."

Hawksley's trip was doomed from the start since he started out with pre-conceived ideas and an agenda he and the BBC wanted to push. A pity, since he and the BBC's audience could have learned so much.

I wonder why they call it the American dream? Surely everyone wants to be happy and successful.

Thankfully, I was taught very early that all one needs to start with are ideas. Nothing more. Maybe that's what they mean by the American dream. If it is, then it's not limited to Americans, anyone can do it.
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