Poverty persists and even worsens despite the decline in welfare rolls. Journalists salivate over a bounding stock market, failing to ask presidential candidates what they propose for those without portfolios. What saddens me most is that so many people grow up aiming for privileged lives. We don't have just an income and resource gap. We have an expectations gap.
Inflated expectations are everywhere.
Twentysomething entrepreneurs aim to retire at 50 with enough money socked away to spend more years in retirement than on the job. Finance columnists advise parents on which kid-friendly websites will best teach children how to invest their money. We all lose when society routinely legitimizes desires such as these. The fantasy misdirects us. It entices us to play the market, to aim for the high-paying career regardless of its human cost, to define the American Dream as a golden parachute rather than a better life.