Who Stole the American Dream?

Who Stole the American Dream? is the title of a new book by veteran journalist Hedrick Smith. I was curious about what Smith had to say because for years he was a leading foreign correspondent for the New York Times and a voice of reason and moderation throughout his tenure at the Times. He wrote an outstanding book about the modern Soviet Union back in the early 90s called "The Russians" and somewhat more recently he penned a volume titled "The Power Game" which explores how the United States Congress actually passes key legislature and shapes public policy. It is a sobering account about an institution that seems to respond more to the highest bidder than the best argument, and puts self-interest far ahead of moral obligation or social urgency.

In Who Stole the American Dream, he offers an increasingly familiar account of the role government has played in selling out the poor and the moderately well off. Just about every legislative initiative that has emerged from Congress since President Reagan has proved advantageous to the wealthiest Americans. And while those in positions in power have made the most of governmental directives that have been designed to support the rich, those who are poor or on the margins have suffered, often grievously.

Near the end of his book Smith explores what needs to happen to restore a modicum of economic and social justice. He proposes a massive jobs program to heal America's infrastructure, strong governmental support for science, technology, and innovation, a severe reduction in the military budget, a more sensible and compassionate housing policy, and modest adjustments to how Social Security and Medicare are funded to ensure their viability.

He reserves the very last section of his book for what he considers the most important change of all. A plan to unleash an army of volunteers "to get the country back on track..." to exploit this army of volunteers to "reclaim the American Dream."What he especially has in mind is a mass movement that would insist, that would, in fact, demand a new morning in America in which those lacking work would finally be able to secure employment to repair America's broken places. These broken places include the highways and bridges and sewer systems that have fallen on hard times, but they also include the schools that lack sufficient qualified teachers, the poor communities that lack healthy food, and even the relatively well off places that lack sustainable energy sources and clean water and that continue to spew far too many pollutants into the air. It is a call for everyone to become civically engaged around the issue of work for all those capable of taking advantage of it and a new commitment to a social contact that puts the needs of people before institutions, the priorities of health and well being ahead of empty platitudes regarding America's primacy in the world.