The American Dream

I have found something really troubling lately in television. It involves the American Dream's death. In at least two very popular series, a middle class denizen finds that they have to scramble to keep up appearances, and the only thing they can turn to is dealing drugs.

For instance, Weeds. According to Wikipedia, the plot revolves around a widowed housewife (Mary-Louise Parker) from an affluent California suburb who becomes her neighborhood's marijuana dealer to make ends meet.

Also there is the critically acclaimed Breaking Bad. Wikipedia says the show revolves around Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a struggling high school chemistry teacher with many family issues. When White is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, he breaks down and turns to a life of crime, and starts producing and selling methamphetamine with his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) in a desire to secure his family's financial future.

I don't claim to ever have sat down to watch either one of these series, and I will tell you why. It scares the sh*t out of me. Why in the world is it that one needs to make fast, big cash in order to survive in the US? Why is the only way one can do that with manufacturing or growing and selling drugs? Have things really gotten that bad for us?

I hope not, but I really do wonder.