with most americans struggling to keep themselves and or their families heada above water, this piece of drivel is the best the globe can put 4th? ma

Did it ever occur to the author that perhaps people have come to realize that the American dream was always purely a myth. As my children are wont to say, "Sure I could win the lotto, I might invent something absolutely unknown before, but the chances of that are equally low and while dear old Dad has some loot he ain't a Bush". Perhaps these youngsters recognize a stacked deck, a limitation at the happiness wealth might bring. When I was a young man I wanted it all, as I aged I wanted to understand it and now I want to enjoy it. Countries aren't a lot different than people, they have youthful exuberance and slowly grow to recognize their own limitations. I've never believed in the idea of "sustainable growth" kind of a mathematical oxymoron, so perhaps a little calming down won't hurt.

Most people I know don't struggle to stay afloat they all seem to have the newest gadgets. It seems to me the 70's were struggling to stay afloat. Now it is more like, "Hey he's got that I wish I had it", a lot of folks seem to struggle to recognize their own limits.

**********In April 2009, Barack Obama responded to a journalist's question in Strasbourg with the statement, "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."( that Greek economy is certainly exceptional)********If your president thinks your country is as exceptional as all the other countries ( EVERYONE SHOULD GET A TROPHY ) how can you go wrong.******* TEPID AT THE TOP, TEPID AT THE BOTTOM.

I'll take a balanced European approach any day and every blessed day. Sitting in traffic is also pretty boring. Work to live, not live to work.

This nation has produced amazing technologies from the telegraph to AC to antibiotics. Our lives are better and longer because of American drive and ingenuity. Let us hope that we remain the leader in innovation. If we don't, we could become the servants of other more dynamic nations.

It was in his Inaugural Address that President Obama said it was time to put away childish things. And that included American's clinging to false hopes of instant solutions to major problems. The press chooses to ignore the disastrous presidency of 2000-2008 when the country stepped into a hornets' nest in the Middle East, the gap between rich and poor expanded, and access to the basics of healthcare, housing, and education were practically closed to the vast majority of Americans. Republicans continue to promise "fix-its" for an environment they created. And you too, can own a piece of the Brooklyn Bridge. If there is malaise in the land, it stems from the realization that the game was rigged...and the real winners have their loot in off-shore accounts.

Agreed. Also, you don't have to look as far as across the Atlantic. Many Canadians, including my in-laws in Quebec enjoy a more balanced "continential" view of life.

The typical recent college graduate is saddled big enough to be a mortgage (in my day), while un-, or underemployed, no equity, just debt. If you were not in a malaise, you would not be rational. Those who are plugging along to make the most of the bad situation, are praiseworthy. At least their trying. Congress and the President, neither pays its bills, nor reduces its expectations or expenses, and they're flat broke. They act as if they don't have a care in the world. Should the young emulate them?

Tom may see the glass but he sees it as half empty. After nearly four hundred years of striving, Americans have achieved the highest standard of living the world has ever known and have the wealth and time to pursue their dreams.

Obama's "American Dream": put as many people on welfare and food stamps as possible.

"...we were tired of Great Causes, there was no more than a short outbreak of moral indignation, typified by Dos Passos' Three Soldiers. Presently we began to have slices of the national cake and our idealism only flared up when the newspapers made melodrama out of such stories as Harding and the Ohio Gang or Sacco and Vanzetti. The events of 1919 left us cynical rather than revolutionary..." F. Scott Fitzgerald / / / C'est plus ca change c'est plus la meme chose. / / / the American dream is fueled, and always has been, by the energy and zeal of immigrants and the down-trodden in our nation for a better life,. These days life for the majority is 'okay', so with the game now rigged to limit real oppotunity to the 1%, and a strain of xenophobia powered by conservative talking heads strangling the flow of those who still hope, is it any wonder some sense stagnation?

That certainly doesn't seem to match up with the stats.

Then emigrate to the EU country of your choice. In contrast with the Cuban utopia that Michael Moore admires, we allow people to leave. There are millions lining up to replace you.

Isn't it a dumb idea that everyone should always be better off than he was four years ago? This isn't necessary, sustainable, or continually possible. Seriously? the belief that everyone needs to be better off every four years is very similar to the idea that everyone always gets a trophy.

No person or corporation works to improve the lives of others in the US. It's much more about making money.

Not true. The US standard of living is not high. There are many countries with higher standards of living.