stormwyvern said:
I think that's partly true, but especially right now, it's important to acknowledge that for a lot of Americans and people around the world, it's far more complicated than just "work hard and you can achieve your dreams." You can be a hard working, loyal employee and still get laid off from your job because of circumstances you have no control over. You can have a job and work very hard and still not be able to do much more than get by, let alone achieving your dreams. While it may be OK at some stages in your life to say "I'm going to pursue my dream career and I'm OK with living on ramen for a while and doing without cable TV and making some other sacrifices until it pays," it's a different story when you have a family to support, since you can't ask your kids to sacrifice for your dreams as much as you would another adult.

I do agree that many Americans have developed a disturbing sense of entitlement on several fronts and I certainly don't exclude myself from that statement. But even though I don't think you meant to imply otherwise, I think it's iportant to note that the problem is bigger than people simply not being able to work for what they want.