Susan Quinn - Writer, The American Thinker Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Seven twenty three, is that time here in Houston's Born
New Susan Quinn, writer the American Thinker, joins us. Her
piece is entitled We've Lost the American Dream. But I
would I would ask you this first, Susan, because I
know the American dream is not necessarily the same for everybody.
But is there a common We used to have a
pretty common theme on what we thought the American dream was.
Do we still have that common theme?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I think that we do. I think that it's been
disappearing on us, but I think that the dream has
been there for a long time. And that's what I
tried to do in my article was identify what some
of those aspects of the American dream were and the
reasons I thought that we were losing it.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Well, I know that, at least in my mind, part
of the American dream was every generation to do a
little bit better than the generation that came before it.
And we certainly seem to be going in the opposite
direction when it comes to that.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
That's certainly true, and that's happened for a lot of reasons.
I think that our young people who have gone to
college were not encouraged to study things that we're going
to move them ahead to give them more opportunity. And
so we've got college graduates who have gotten degrees that
are not very practical. They've gotten huge student loans tens

(01:19):
of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars that
have put them in serious debt, and they don't know
where to go from there. They're living in their parents'
basements in order to try.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
To get by.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
So that very idea of the American dream of being
able to purchase a home. For instance, we used to
be able to purchase a home when we were in
our twenties or thirties. Now people are approaching forty or
so just to be able to consider to buy a home.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Well, and kind of ironically, a lot of these young
people are starting to reject capitalism and look towards socialism.
To me, socialism is the antithesis of the American dream.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
It certainly is, because when you're talking about everybody being
equal and having the same things, that pretty much discourages
people who want to be innovative and creative and to
move ahead. Moving ahead is certainly not part of socialism
in any way, shape or form.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
So I guess the way to save it is to
prove that it is still achievable. How do we go
about doing that?

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, I think there are a few things that people
can do. First of all, those people that we've already lost,
and I'm not sure how we can help them. It
would take a lot for them to turn things around.
But I think, especially when we think about the people
who are now entering college, I think one of the
first things we want to do is say, do you
really want to get a college degree? Is that going
to be helpful for you? Or should you consider maybe

(02:45):
a trade school or a different kind of profession where
you can be a journeyman and learn practical skills in
order to be able to move ahead. I think too
that we can encourage people to pursue capitalism, to know
that it's okay to be innovative, to know that it's
okay to make money and to move ahead. I think

(03:08):
too that we want to encourage people to marry. What
happened to marriage nowadays? People are discouraged from marrying and
having children too. This country is in dire straits when
it comes to having children and raising them to be
productive American citizens. And I think that the last thing

(03:31):
I would mention is, many people were raised in a religion,
but they've abandoned it, and they've been discouraged from really
pursuing religion which provides us with meaning and belief and
hope and community. And so I think that we want
to say to them, at least consider going back to

(03:52):
the religion you were raised in, and if not that
another one so that you have some basis for finding
the American train. Yeah, for having those tenants.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
The good news on that front is whether you want
to thank Charlie Kirk and what happened to him for
it or whatever, the reason is, we do seem to
be going back to religion. And that's a good that's
a good news scenario. Thank you. Susan Quinn, appreciate it.
Susan Quinn's a writer for American Thinker seven twenty seven.