A
recent poll taken by credit.com (no I am not affiliated with them in any way,
shape, or form) shows what Tiny House folks have known for a long time: The
American Dream is not in home ownership any longer, but in debt free home ownership. Consider the
statistics they disaggregated from the data they collected:
The survey, conducted by GFK Custom
Research for Credit.com, found that most respondents (27.9%) said the American
Dream is retiring financially secure at 65, though coming in at second place,
23% defined it as being debt-free. The other
options were owning a home (18.2%),
graduating from college or paying off your student loans (6.6%) and joining the
1% (4.3%). The responses were rounded out by: other (11.4%), none (0.2%) and
don’t know/no response (8.5%).
These results were derived from about
1,000 complete interviews with Americans 18 and older, including an
approximately equal number of men and women.
“The poll underscores something I have
long suspected — there’s a great deal of nostalgia for a promise that
increasingly and tragically no longer exists,” says Credit.com’s Co-Founder and
Chairman Adam Levin. “Once upon a time, the American Dream was owning a home
full of thriving, college-bound kids, two cars and little debt. Now it appears
that for many Americans, the American Dream has changed.”
You can read
more and learn about the types of questions asked in the survey here: http://blog.credit.com/2013/09/debt-new-american-dream/?utm_source=Yahoo&utm_medium=content&utm_content=IB_1&utm_campaign=new_american_dream_think
This article just shows how much our notions are
changing. I feel Tiny Houses and sustainable living will become more and more
common as people abandon the concept of the McMansion and credit card debt.
Living tiny does mean living large!
What do you think? Is the American dream changing?
What do you think? Is the American dream changing?
