Our
Viewpoint:
The State of the American Dream
The
Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth,
otherwise known as MassINC, recently released the
results of the American Dream Project's two-year study
to assess the economic health of workers and families in
Massachusetts. And quite frankly, the report's findings
are troubling.
The study finds that the path to economic success in the
bay state is "narrow and unforgiving." It's
more difficult today to obtain or hold on to a
"reasonably secure middle-class standard of
living." And despite the state's strong performance
on economic measures like unemployment, job-creation,
and productivity, the study's researchers found a number
of factors contributing to our increasing economic
vulnerability, including:
-
working women are tapped out (working more hours than
ever just to keep up)
- there are not enough hours in the day (for either
work for quality family life)
- one bread winner isn't enough
- college education required
- the 1990s recession hit harder than expected,
particularly in Western MA
- the 1990s recovery was not as diverse as once
believed
- the geography of jobs matters more and more
- owning a home is harder than ever
The implications? According the study's conclusions,
"Massachusetts is in desperate need of fresh,
pragmatic policies to improve the economic prospects of
our families and ensure that the American Dream becomes
more accessible than it is today. If we don’t develop
these policies, we are likely to see young and educated
middle-class families decide to pursue the American
Dream elsewhere."
A sobering thought, indeed.
So what can we, as concerned Pioneer Valley residents,
do to keep the "American Dream" alive in
Western Mass? First, we can become better acquainted
with the issues, by accessing the study online at http://www.massinc.org. Then, we can pressure our
elected officials to support issues that will increase
the quality of life for workers and families in the
Valley. After all, it's our community and our future at
stake.
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