The American Dream

Talk about culture shock! I sat down to play a game of LIFE this afternoon. I think maybe I had played it before many years ago, but had forgotten the main gist and rules. Today I had a great time with great company, but couldn't stop marveling internally over the cultural biases of the game: salaries that range from $30,000 to $100,000 and the emphases on insurances; the idea that everyone has a car, a house and pays taxes; the emphasis on college offering choices that a personal career choice can't offer . . . the list goes on. I was also intrigued with the bias that everyone gets married and eventually or will likely have children . . . AND along with children comes the responsibility to pay for them to attend college. Of course at the end of the game everyone retires (you can choose the place for millionaires or another country estate) and then you cash in all your life insurance you accumulated throughout your life. You add up your worth in dollar amounts to see who wins. All of this picture seemed somewhat "normal" to the players. I couldn't help but consider the fact that the biases I mentioned are actually expectations of most people living in middle-class America.

I started out my "life" on the board this afternoon making the least salary and having to go into debt to pay for my $200,000 Victorian house. My innate discomfort with debt ensured that I paid off that loan as soon as I could. But to my surprise, I ended up having to spend more than everyone (close to $400,000) on extra expenses and luxuries such as a second home (can't remember if it was a beach house or cabin), college for my two kids, thousands on family photos and police fines and a couple other items which cost me hundreds of thousands in one shot. Though everyone kept exclaiming how unlucky I was in how much I had to keep dishing out, I couldn't help thinking that I had heard REAL life stories that were not too much different than my "game" scenario.

America displays the American dream on every TV show, in every magazine and even on game boards. It truly is amazing to think what Americans are capable of in a world where over half the global population, nearly 3 billion people, live on less than $2 a day. We, as Americans, have learned to manipulate both debt and income to equal wealth. We have developed both the means and mentality for wealth -- we know exactly what we want and and how to get it. We have been programmed from little on up on what the definition of "living comfortably" is and we call that "normal" living. Are there those who struggle in America to live up to the standards in the game of LIFE? Sure are! But I find it fascinating to think how even in our games, we indoctrinate ourselves with the middle-class definition of LIFE. That's the American dream and you're apparently missing out if you can't grasp it.

I wonder how much I've been sucked into it.