[EricT.]

It's about working 10 times harder than you thought you'd have to in order to get half as far. It's about struggling through your twenties and working like a dog in your thirties to start to accumulate some money in your forties. It's about trying to find a decent house in a nice neighborhood near a good school for your family.

And then It's about retiring and having nothing better to do than obsess over your next door neighbor's lawn not getting mowed and edged like clockwork because he's too busy trying to eek out a living for himself and his family.

I think the author and many others do not understand that the "American Dream" is not always the same white suburban ideal that became popular after World War II. For some of us, it's a Stepford Wives nightmare.

I'd like to retire before I'm too broken-down and travel the world. Perhaps work as a foreign missionary somewhere in Africa or Europe. I've had my fill of the meaningless suburban existence.

[IrishBrigade]

I’ve had my fill of the meaningless suburban existence.

...you didn’t happen to write beatnik poetry in the 1950’s, by any chance...?