Is The American Dream Changing?

It turns out that America might just be big enough to have differing versions of the American Dream.

With housing prices still plummeting and unemployment still rising, the old stigma of renting is starting to wear off.

As NPR points out, renting is now being re-examines, with a less-weary eye.

Another article in the series discusses how some renters have found "forced simplicity, [which] keeps [their] overhead very low and lifestyle very flexible."

In a world where the stock market can wipe out an entire life's work and a home's value can plummet to the point where you end up owing more than what it's worth, the younger generation is starting to question the American Dream as it was created in the 1950s.

Indeed, as Raj Date points out in the article, "The world we live in today is not quite the world that existed in 1950", referring to the transient nature of work and suggesting that a middle class American should not "stake themselves" with a house.

With the mercurial nature of today's economy, home ownership may not end up being the ultimate fruition of the American Dream.

After all, as The New York Times points out, one-third of twenty-somethings move to a new residence every year and go through an average of seven jobs within the decade.

With such drastic statistics, it's no wonder that renting, as Joanne Cleaver pointed out in the article, "[isn't] being rootless, [it's] being free."

And isn't being free ultimately what American Dream is all about?