The Great Debate UK
from The Great Debate:
Obama and the American dream in reverse
"It's like the American dream in reverse." That's how President Barack Obama, ten days after taking office last year, described the plight of Americans hit by the faltering economy. His catchy description fell short -- the dream has turned into a nightmare for tens of millions.
So much so that an opinion poll this week showed that 43 percent of those surveyed thought that "the American Dream" is a thing of the past. It "once held true" but no longer does. Only half the country believes the dream "still exists," according to the poll, commissioned by ABC News and Yahoo against a background of dismal statistics on growing poverty, inequality, unemployment, and Americans without health insurance.
Before turning to the gloomy numbers, a brief detour to the meaning of the phrase "the American Dream," long a familiar part of the U.S. (and international) lexicon. The survey defined it as "if you work hard, you get ahead." That's neat shorthand for the concept that the American social, economic and political system makes success possible for everyone.
More expansive definitions of the American Dream invariably feature home ownership, and there the dream went into reverse on a particularly large scale, with the subprime mortgage boom and subsequent housing bust. Last year alone, there were 2.8 million foreclosures -- 7,700 a day -- on homes whose owners could no longer afford their mortgages.
from The Great Debate:
America’s season of rage and fear
Freedom in America will soon be a fading memory. American exceptionalism died on March 23, 2010. On that day, the United States started becoming just like any other country. Worse still, like a West European country. Socialism in the land of the free and the home of the brave!
In a nutshell, that's how many conservatives see the health reform bill President Barack Obama signed into law on March 23, after a year of acrimonious debate. The language has been shrill and the superheated political temperature is reflected by worried headlines such as "The heat is on. We may get burned" (Wall Street Journal) or "Putting out the flames" (Washington Post).
from The Great Debate:
Mickey’s Magic needed for Disneyland Shanghai
-- Wei Gu is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are her own --
China has finally given a green light for Disneyland to build a theme park in Shanghai. Negotiations that started when Bill Clinton was in the White House have concluded just before President Barack Obama is due to visit. The approval looks like a coup for Walt Disney Co, but it will take all of Mickey's magic to prevent the park from becoming another government-financed loss maker.
Disney's last theme park in the region was anything but a hit. Hong Kong Disneyland was created in 2005 in an effort to boost employment in the epidemic-stricken region, but attendance numbers have fallen short of target. This hits the Hong Kong government harder than Disney, because the former not only took an initial 57 percent equity stake in the venture, but also spent $1.75 billion building related infrastructure like a metro line and ferry piers.
