"Without Reform, Dream Will Dwindle"

While much has been made of the results of the election and the supposed ideological war between the red and blue states, the one commonality that binds this nation together is the belief in the American dream. The idea of the American dream encompasses core values of religious, political freedom, economic opportunity, social mobility, home ownership and racial equality.

My own family is one embodiment of the American dream. My father, with only a high school education and one hell of a work ethic, has been able to hold a job at a natural gas company for 30 years. For a good portion of my childhood, he single-handedly provided for his family of five, allowing my mother to stay home with us. I had my Barbie swimming pool and my mommy, I wanted for nothing. This picture perfect American family is fast disappearing due to globalization and unscrupulous corporate behavior.

The full effect of globalization is finally taking its destructive toll on the American standard of living. Large corporations no longer have to be entrenched in the halls of Congress to get their way at the behest of the common good. Now they can simply depress labor and environmental standards with threats of moving jobs overseas.

Agreements like the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement have undercut hard earned labor and environmental laws that the American working classes benefit from. Companies whose bottom line matters more than human dignity can bypass 40-hour work weeks, the minimum wage, overtime pay and other requirements by moving operations to third world countries. As job losses continue to mount, Americans will be forced to lower their standards if they want to keep jobs.

The jobs that allowed high school educated men and women, like my dad, to adequately provide for their families are long gone to overseas markets. Shuttered textile, steel, and furniture plants dot the heartland as manufacturing jobs have slowly bled out. Between 1980 and 2002 General Motors, Kodak and Goodyear all decreased their work forces by double digits. These were the good-paying jobs that made the American dream possible for the majority of Americans.

Those in favor of globalization and outsourcing assert that Americans need not worry over the loss of these jobs because globalization will create better jobs here. Unfortunately this prediction has yet to pan out. As GM, Kodak and Goodyear were cutting their employment rolls, United Parcel Service increased payroll by 224 percent, McDonald's by 253 percent and Wal-Mart increased by 4,715 percent. What has replaced decent jobs so far, are lower paying service sector jobs.

As middle class workers are forced to take pay cuts and lose benefits, the middle class continues to shrink. This class is the American dream, the picket fence surrounded home with 2.5 children, and it is rapidly disappearing.

Free trade proponents maintain that education is the answer. Bush, when asked about what he would say to someone who had lost their job, shouted from the rooftops about "No Child Left Behind." He has also gone around the country promoting community colleges and higher education. Better jobs that pay more are coming down the line and we need to have an educated work force. In classic Bush style of saying one thing and doing another, Bush has made higher education less attainable for middle-income families.

President Bush's proposed 2005 budget does not increase the maximum Pell Grant, which is worth $500 less than its 1975 value. Bush wants to add a tax to college loans and eliminate a federal matching program for state scholarships, a $1 billion dollar loss. This is unacceptable when the average college student leaves college today with $17,000 in loan debt and tuition hikes are commonplace.

The ideal of the American dream that defines this great nation must be protected. Free trade agreements must be renegotiated to include labor standards to prevent the overwhelming bargaining leverage corporations hold over American workers. Also, the electorate and government must prioritize social programs like education grants that facilitate economic growth and opportunity. Without reforms like these, our great society will be hollowed out by the bottom line.