The collapse of the American dream?

Millions of Americans are losing their jobs, their savings, and their homes.

The year 2011 will be remembered for the fact that even optimistic Americans began to lose hope. President John F. Kennedy once said that a rising tide lifts all boats. But now, at low tide, Americans saw that many small boats appeared to be in pieces. During that brief time when the tide was rising, millions of people believed they had a chance to realize the American Dream. Now those dreams will likely not come true. By 2011, the savings of those who lost their jobs in 2008 or 2009 were spent. Unemployment checks have run out. There are too few job ads, so 50-year-olds have little hope of getting a job. Indeed, middle-aged people who thought they would only be out of work for a few months have now realized that they will, in fact, join the ranks of retirees. Young people who graduated from colleges with tens of thousands of dollars in education loans can't find work at all. People who became homeless moved either in with friends or relatives. Homes purchased on credit have had to be abandoned or sold for next to nothing. More than seven million American families have lost their homes.
It will be even worse this year. Unless, of course, the United States solves its political problems and finally takes stimulus measures to bring the unemployment rate down to at least 6% or 7% (the pre-crisis level was 4- 5% ). But this is as unlikely as the European countries working together to recover from the crisis. On the contrary, EU disunity will only exacerbate the economic downturn. The long crisis that began with the collapse of the housing bubble in 2007 and the recession that followed will continue.
Moreover, the major developing countries that successfully navigated through the turbulent years of 2008 and 2009 are no longer coping with the challenges looming on all fronts. In Brazil, economic growth has already stalled, fueling fears among its neighbors in Latin America.
Meanwhile, long-term challenges - including climate change and other environmental threats, rising inequality in much of the world - have not gone away. Some problems are becoming more acute. For example, high unemployment is holding back wage growth and raising the poverty rate.

Based on foreign press for ForTrader.org