Although shows like Shark Tank give me hope that making an interesting product can help fulfill dreams of making it. I have never been creative or inventive though so I live vicariously through people who can.

Can make a eye glass holder out of a piece of metal and become a success. That is how America used to be. No more but shows like this may be changing back to the regular person making it. It's very important.

for Navin R. Johnson

there are amazing riches to be found in abandoned storage sheds!

In the United States of America, the only way to get ahead is not by what you know but by who you know. Sure, there are a few lucky breaks here and there, but generally, if you don't know anyone who can further your career or who favors you and is willing to further your career, the American Dream is just that...a dream.

it is in the low-tax, weak-union US.

Hardly anyone applied for other positions in the company anymore. Not sure why. Plus going out and applying for other jobs should be done to keep interview skills up. I go on a job interview every year. I have also been promoted 3 times in 4 years. Not because I am special but because I apply for various positions where my colleagues don't want to. That needs to change. I do not have loyalty to anyone anymore because companies don't have loyalty to the workers.

Stiglitz was on Morning Joe today and generally got a good reception. I was fearing that he would be viciously attacked by Joe Scarborough but for some reason Joe was pretty mellow with the guy.

are wasting away in the offshore accounts of a relative handful of psychopaths. Thanks Raygun.

about upward mobility. That of course is important but there was more to the American Dream than that. Sometimes it wasn't so much about getting a better job etc. Sometimes it is just about being able to support your family, buy a home, send your kids to school from where you are at in the economic level. It was about fulfilling your own hopes and dreams be they ever so humble.

I see this problem at that level today. The young in my family almost all fit into that position. They are struggling because of low wages and a higher cost of living. The ones who have made it are all highly educated and living in our area is cheaper than in some of the big cities. They stayed put and have been able to buy housing at reasonable prices and with the income of both parents they have been able to support their families. But they are never going to get rich.

From the sounds of it many young people today are not this lucky.