I'd like to tell a little story. It is the story of my 93 year old grandfather. See after WWII he came home and lived what we call "The American Dream."
If the Diaries and comments I read here are accurate, it is a "Dream" most Americans don't even realize once existed. I find that pretty darn sad.
When he got home from the war he got a union job at a Snap-on plant, in the small rural town he grew up in. Yes, there were actually factories once in this country. We made stuff. I personally don't make stuff or tinker with my car, but I hear Snap-on makes what is like the Ferrari of tools. The best money can buy. Heck when folks that know about this stuff are in my garage, and see all my Snap-on tools they get giddy.
He was/is pretty darn proud of that. Union. American made. The best you can buy. Somehow Snap-on was able to make money, hire union workers, and make a quality product all at the same time.
He bought a house. Raised my mom and her brother and sister (who all worked at the same Snap-on plant I might add). Paid for all of their college, which was a first for that side of my parents family. College. He had stock options, which are now worth a small fortune. And oh he has a pension and wonderful health care.
Let me say that again. He has a pension and health care that is better then your health care I am sure. See he worked his entire life for a company, made them a ton of money I assume, and they still take care of him.
Now I wish this was only a happy story, but alas it is not.
See that Snap-on plant closed about 15 years ago. The city tried to find somebody else to take it over, but alas no luck. So a few years ago they sold the land to a firm that literally came in just to recycle all the concrete on the lot.
I wish I would have taken some pics of it, cause it was about the most heart breaking thing I've ever seen. First they laid off everybody. Then they sold the factory as scrap metal. Then as a final insult, they tore the concrete out of the place.
It sits to this very day as a "raped" piece of land, running for acres with a steel fence around it.
It makes me ponder, what I said in my title. What has happened to the "American Dream?" It isn't like I have to go back 100+ years to recall a different America. It is happening on "my watch" for lack of a better phrase.