Hi tkc,
I like that one.
The American Dream, of course, has emigrated. The US is no longer distinguished by its egalitarian ladders of opportunity.
But I think you and orda are onto something - which he identifies via patents and you as a construct of social mobility. The opportunities to better one's self via hard work etc seem more elusive than history indicates may once have been the case.
Maybe the indigenous US culture has grown into something other than the one immigrants created.
I wonder if the existence of a frontier has something to do with it. Same kind of thing seemed to happen when cyberspace was laid out and suddenly there was so much wealth which appeared out of nowhere.
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