What exactly is the American dream? and waht do you think about this song by switchfoot?

Question

SWITCHFOOT LYRICS

"American Dream"

When success is equated with excess
The ambition for excess wrecks us
As top of the mind becomes the bottom line
When success is equated with excess

If your time ain't been nothing for money
I start to feel really bad for you, honey
Maybe honey, put your money where your mouth's been running
If your time ain't been nothing but money

I want out of this machine
It doesn't feel like freedom

This ain't my American dream
I want to live and die for bigger things
I'm tired of fighting for just me
This ain't my American dream

When success is equated with excess
When we're fighting for the Beamer, the Lexus
As the heart and soul breath in the company goals
Where success is equated with excess

'Cause baby's always talkin' 'bout a ring
And talk has always been the cheapest thing
Is it true would you do what I want you to
If I show up with the right amount of bling?

Like a puppet on a monetary string
Maybe we've been caught singing
Red, white, blue, and green
But that ain't my America,
That ain't my American dream

Answer 1

Good band!

Answer 2

The lyrics fit how things are now.

Typically, the American dream was:

Pull yourself up by the bootstraps from nothing. Become a success. Get married. Have 2.5 kids, a dog, and a house with a picket fence. Have a husband that is capable of earning the wages and a wife who could stay at home if she wanted. Have pride in the USA and see everyone in it as Americans.

Now it is more like:

Get by with as little as possible. Get something for nothing. Develop a fear of education. Cheat and bend laws to make due. Live off of public assistance. Have 2 or more maxed out credit cards. Live beyond your means. Have all the bling and material things as you can get. Keep up with the Jones'. Fear being yourself. Forget being an American, but be sure to shove your own culture based on another country or on objectionable behavior onto others. Wear your ethnicity on your sleeve and set up hypocritical double standards. Pretend that words mean one thing when one person uses them and another thing when others use them. Whine and complain a lot. Use money to have power and control over others. Blame victims and make excuses for criminals.