Where's My American Dream?

"The only really necessary writer and people in the publishing process now are the writer and the reader. Everyone who stands between those two has both risk and opportunity" This quote was taken from the New York Times this morning. It is by Russel Grandinetti, a top exec at Amazon.com. He was referring to Amazon's new trend of cutting out the middle man. You see, Amazon is starting to work more directly with the authors that fill their website with merchandise. They feel it is no longer profitable to work with agents and publishers. It's a novel thing. It's new, it's different, it could work.
However, it's also a parallel to what's happening all around us, right now. Things are changing. But not in a way we could have seen. Not similar to the rushing in of the information age. Not the availability of mass media or of new ways of communicating(text messaging, Skype). But a change of necessity. At least that's the mindset of those forcing the change.
Corporations are doing more with less. People are quite upset lately with the record profits and the lack of hiring (note: I know there are many more reasons people are upset, I just don't want to talk about them in this post). Corps. have realized that they can cut spending and still make record profits. And why should they. IF I felt there was something in my life that was me financial strain and I could cut it loose, I would too. Things are never going to go back to the way they were. Whether that enacts massive social and political change of this country, or the loss of America as the greatest power, I just don't know. But I do know that to succeed we are going to have to adapt to this changing climate. The Tea Party on right and the Occupiers on the left, might never come to a consensus on a direction to take. But those that make it through to the other side are those that can and are willing to make the sacrifice to see us through it.

Occupy Miami was last Saturday and a lot of the signs didn't make any sense. One in particular caught my eye. It said, "$40,000 in debt, no job, Where's My American Dream."
Let me break it down for you. You're not guaranteed a job. The American dream is not that you will be happy with lots of money. The American Dream is the ability and the opportunity to pursue that dream. Plenty of people try and make it in the face of "corporate tyranny". I have faith that I will be OK. And so will you, if you don't give up.



P.S. I don't care what a 12 year old's perspective is on the economics. He's 12.