The American Dream is Not Dead, You Just Can't Afford It
I don't want this to be all doom and gloom as clearly we are in a 4th turning, a time period characterized by societal crisis and upheaval (oh fun), but hey, that's where we are.
On the other side is peace, prosperity, growth and stability. But we're not there yet. Systems that don't work have to die off first and the people that benefit from these systems will fight to maintain the status quo.
It's going to be messy, but it's not forever.
$5 million dollars is now what the American dream costs
Full Bio
Investopedia just updated their report, and the American Dream costs $5 million now.
...and that was up from the $4.4 million number they quoted last year.
The Reality Check: Then vs. Now
Let me tell you a story about what this actually means in real numbers, because $5 million sounds insane, but until you start to really break it down and understand the context, it's going to hit a lot different.
My uncle Phil (RIP) bought his house in 1985 when he was 27 years old with a young wife. He worked as a truck driver making around $45,000 a year at the time.
His wife stayed home with the kids when they were little and then got a part time job once the kids were older to make ends meet.
They bought a three bedroom house for probably around $82,000, somewhere in that ballpark, with a 20% down payment to avoid PMI. So that's around $16,000 for your down payment.
That's all you really needed to save.
Your mortgage would be something like $700 at that point with 12% interest rates (which were common in the 80s).
That's it.
$3750 a month income before tax.
After tax you're looking at $2800 a month - 700 and you have $2100 a month left over to cover expenses. Not rich by any stretch, but you could live.
Fast forward to today
That same house today, in the same market where I grew up in is now $450,000 - approaching $500,000 and quick.
So what you would need today for the same house is $90,000 (20%) for a down payment if you want to avoid the PMI.
Otherwise, you're going to pay the mortgage insurance on top of your actual mortgage, and the monthly payment at today's rates is pushing $3,000 a month.
$3,000 a month!?
So you need to be making something like $120,000 a year minimum to afford what a truck driver in the 80s could buy in the late 80's, early 90s.
The Jobs That Don't Exist Anymore
Factory jobs from the '90s doesn't exist anymore.
...and even if that same factory job still exists today, what are they paying? 18 bucks, 20$ if you're lucky. So that's what we're talking about, you're making $45,000 a year before taxes. So basically, you're making what my uncle made 30 years ago, except everything costs you four times as much.
Working harder and harder for a dollar worth less and less.
Breaking Down the $5 Million "Dream"
$5 fu%king million dollars.
That's what they're calculating for the full American Dream to be right now.
The house, the retirement, two kids going to college, a wedding, new car every 10 years, annual vacations and pet ownership.
This is some elite financial achievement.
This was the old American dream, and you could get that with $35,000 a year just a few decades ago.
The retirement portion alone on the new figures is $1.6 million. Friend, the average American after a lifetime of work has $134,000 saved for retirement.
You understand now?
The other half of Americans have zero, not a penny to their name.
We're already in fantasy land with these numbers.
Most of these people will not earn $5 million in their entire lifetime, let alone save for that. In order for you to be able to retire, you need $1.6 million for the retirement portion in todays dollar value.
Do you not see how many old people still work today?
Walmart greeters, greeters at Costco, basic jobs that should be for young people. You have old people doing it because they have to work until they're dead.
The Future Gets Worse
It's $5 million today. For those of you that are young reading this, what does this number look like for you when you're ready for retirement?
What does the "American dream" look like 5 years, 10 years from now even?
We've already raised the cost by $600,000, that was the increase from last year for the American dream.
What does it look like 10, 20 years from now?
Is the American dream going to cost $10 million?
What does that mean for the currency debasement and the value of the dollar? It's lost 10% this year alone. The housing market is the most unaffordable its ever been:
Can you imagine that we will be in an era where the old American dream will reach 10 plus million dollars, requiring a 7 figure income at some point?
All the while you're telling the average American to just save their way into retirement? Sidenote, I think index funds are bubble too:
At some point we will reach a passive index fund bubble
— Nate O'Brien (@nateobrienn) September 24, 2025
Everyone is blindly piling into ETFs
It’ll be a rude awakening pic.twitter.com/xs4quDnaB2
How This Destroyed Dating and Relationships
When Gen Z tells you that they feel like they have no way out and dating is terrible, don't forget that dating and sex fundamentally drive the economy.
Men work hard to gain resources, status and access to women. But with no ability to even get started, what's the point? Why work hard at all when there is no reward in it.
This economy, it's absolutely broken and it gets really dark because everyone wants to blame a million other things, right? They'll say feminism, just pull yourself up by your boot straps (brother, they don't even have boots).
It all starts with financial enslavement.
Forget feminism. Forget the leftists, forget whatever other weird culture war that's probably going to be popular by tomorrow.
It doesn't matter. Okay?
It's always been about the money. You cannot afford a family.
We're talking this is for men strictly as I can't speak to the plight of women.
You're a 28-year-old guy today. Same age as my uncle when he bought his house in the 80s. But instead, think about this. You're making $65,000 if you're lucky. And after taxes, we're talking what? You're left over with $48,000 take-home.
So your rent for a mediocre one-bedroom is probably around $2,000, what you're paying minimum, unless you want to live an hour away from work.
So okay, that's $24,000 a year gone immediately. Then you have your student loans. So let's just say we'll be generous and tell you that they're about $500 a month because you believed the lie about college like we all did. That's another $6,000 gone from your check.
Now your car payment and insurance, we'll say that averages out to what, $600. Everything's expensive now. Groceries for $400 probably because eggs cost as much as gold. And so what are you left with at the end?
Maybe, let's just say monthly, $500 bucks max out of your paycheck if you never do anything at all and you've just got the basics taken care of.
Now try dating with that budget.
The Broken Social Contract
I'm seeing comments on videos all the time that women want equality but expect men to pay and do everything. Let's be real though about what's happening here though.
The entire social contract is broken, it's not just women. Women are still operating on that traditional mindset with those traditional expectations, but they're living in the modern economy and doing whatever they want because having boundaries as a man is "insecure."
While men are expected to be traditional and be providers on salaries that can't provide anything for women who don't deserve girlfriend/wife treatment.
If a normal date (a few drinks, a little bit of food, good conversation), now costs $150 minimum then too many young men are priced out.
On top of that they have to compete with guys who are either lying about being millionaires on dating apps or legitimately are actually rich and they're just treating dating like a buffet.
They're shooting fish in a barrel, it's a video game for these guys.
So they're just running through these "empowered, amazing and awesome" women left and right because they can afford to. What can the average guy offer in this scenario?
The truth is not much.
Just improve yourself bro
You just got to level up! I agree with that to a large degree. I see fat, balding Pattaya bros in Thailand wondering why they still struggle getting quality women in Thailand.
But for young, decent men they're probably are wondering "improve myself for what?"
To compete for a 30+ year old woman who spent her twenties drinking, partying and running through men while I was grinding my butt off for a promotion that probably gave me 3% while inflation was at 8%?
The Value Proposition
The dating market is broken for a generation.
Women would literally rather share a rich man, "high-value man", whatever that corn ball phrase even means, than date a competent, normal man exclusively.
They consider him a broke guy and if you look at this from the perspective of a woman, you have to get it. It's like a value proposition.
An average dude who can't afford a house, can't support a family, can't even take a real vacation. What is there to do with that guy? As a woman, you might as well share the rich guy.
The value proposition is be a side chick of some millionaire guy because that at least comes with a lifestyle and security or you could take that poor option over there, but he'll treat me right.
What do you think a woman's gonna pick? You live once. They're thinking it. I'll be Miss Tuesday afternoon, it's fine, at least I get to be on a boat. With Mr. Poor option over here, we're going to be eating ramen noodles and watching him play video games.
Nah, pass.
The Delusion Continues
70% of Americans they polled them in that same article I linked to said that they were optimistic about achieving these milestones.
They're either terrible at math or delusional.
You will wake up one day and own nothing. Probably by 2030. You got a good four years in you to get out before you're trapped for good.
Our universities we're already showing signs of the collapse too as they're a an over-priced bubble that's going to pop. 67% of Northeastern student base was foreigners. NYU has something like 27,00 foreign students and these people are paying full price and then some.
Americans are going to start taking out loans they'll never be able to pay back, and can't discharge through bankruptcy for degrees that won't get them jobs because those jobs are going to go to the H-1B workers who are going to take half of what you demand as an American.
The Simple Contract That's Broken
The boomers will tell you, "hey, you guys need to have kids. You guys are too into lattes. Enough with the avocado toast."
Mr Boomer, you had to show up with half your brain missing and put pieces together on the assembly line and you had a good wage. You also had a pension ready for you and you had a good union that made sure you got paid.
We had a simple contract. Men work and maintain society, women nurture the next generation of human beings. Together you built something worthwhile.
It was simple. But now both people have to work and you still can't afford anything. Women don't want to nurture or marry until they're over 30 years old today because they got brainwashed into thinking it's oppression to defer to a man. Men at the same time can't provide because the economy's rigged against them.
Everyone is miserable, alone and swiping endlessly on dating apps, watching porn or has the SSRI look that most women do.
The Reality We're Living In
The American dream probably died somewhere in the '90s, if not earlier than that. And now we're just pretending.
We're propping it up in our mind somehow that it's still alive while everything around us gets worse and worse. Prices go up. Wages are flat. And we're told to be grateful for the opportunity to compete for scraps.
Boomers had to come to work with half their brains, clock in, assemble stuff, follow directions, clock out, go home. Get a happy 20 year old wife, she gave you two to three kids and supports you in her own way.
What do you get today?
You get someone with insane color hair that looks like the most poisonous frog in the Amazon. Tells you why you're a predator if you want to start a relationship with a 25 year old woman if you're in your 30s, throw in something about toxic masculinity all the while she's doping herself up on pharmaceuticals.
This is the reality we're living in. The numbers don't lie. The American Dream costs $5 million, and most people won't even earn half of that in their entire lives.
The new American dream is freedom and self sovereignty
This starts with opting out of this broken system. Buy Bitcoin or stay poor as far as I can tell...
Gemini
My crypto exchange of choice. Signup and get free Bitcoin, access to an "earn" program for your digital assets and a credit card.
