Living in the American nightmare

By Paul Sassone

Paul Sassone

The American Dream is dead, some say.

It is a debatable point.

But, the American Nightmare, ah, that is alive and thriving.

The American Nightmare goes something like this: You start your working life in a job with a good future. Pay is adequate, there is room for advancement and at the close of your career there will be a pension.

But, somewhere along the line things change. The corporation decides it cannot afford pensions. And besides, people want to continue working after they are age 65, don’t they? Sure, keep busy, keep healthy.

The corporation also takes a look at you. You are now in your 50s.

Because you have been there a long time you are paid more than newer employees. And, since you are in your 50s you very well may become ill and be a drag on health insurance.

Not that there is anything wrong with you now. And you are an experienced worker who performs at a very high level. You are reconciled to the disappeared pension and are willing to work after traditional retirement age.

But, the corporation reasons: Why take the chance?

Younger, less-well-paid workers may not do the job as well as you, but they are younger and less well-paid. That’s bottom-line money.

So, you are let go, laid off, downsized, rightsized, whatever it is called.

And that is pretty much it.

Unemployed workers in their 50s don’t get hired.

So, there you are: unemployed, unemployable, no pension and alive for another 20, 30, even 40 years.

You are living the American Nightmare.

So, what do you do?

You vote for Donald Trump.

He says he will help you. He says he’ll bring back the America you remember and in some ways may actually have been.

But he can’t and he won’t.

But nobody else is even offering to try.

So, you grasp at straws.

But when straw is all there is you grasp it.

–Living in the American nightmare–