Redefining the American Dream
"The American Dream Revisited" (L to R) moderator Richard Wilhelm and panelists Nancy Gibbs, Linda Wertheimer, Thomas J. Wilson, and Anne Mosle
Booz Allen Hamilton Vice President Richard Wilhelm moderated a panel titled “The American Dream Revisited” on July 1, 2009, at the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Ideas Festival. Wilhelm, who is the deputy in the firm’s intelligence, homeland security, and law enforcement business, appeared alongside Time magazine Editor-at-Large Nancy Gibbs; National Public Radio Senior National Correspondent Linda Wertheimer; Thomas J. Wilson, chairman, president, and CEO of The Allstate Corporation and Allstate Insurance Co.; and Anne Mosle, vice president for programs at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Can you address one of the questions you asked the panelists: Has the definition of the American Dream evolved?
Editing the “stuff” and the acquisition of stuff out of the American Dream is certainly taking place. I see it in my own kids. They’re not interested in the same things that I was when I entered the workforce. It became much more important to me to accumulate a nest egg. My kids don’t think that way, and most of the people that age whom I know don’t think that way. The Generation Y’ers who work at Booz Allen are much about work-life balance. They want to know, How much does Booz Allen support volunteerism? For Booz Allen, that’s not only a good thing to do as a good corporate citizen. It’s also a great recruiting incentive.
The American Dream is evolving. I think people will still want to own houses, but I don’t think people are going to have three or four cars. I don’t think people are going to live in huge houses. I think there’s going to be a migration back to the cities where people are more interconnected with each other.
There’s a shift in values taking place. It’s not that they’re being forced to live with less. They want to live with less.
What advice do you give to younger people in pursuing the American Dream?
I tell them to take care of some of the basic things. Start saving now. Ten thousand dollars put away now will be a lot of money at 65 years old. I do think they’re being a little irresponsible financially. They’re taking on too much debt. They’re extending beyond their needs. They’re not saving even a modest amount of income for their future.
But I also would tell them not to be as single-focused on work as I was. When I came into the workforce, the assumption of people who supervised me was that I was going to be there for 30 years. The minute you start treating today’s younger workers like that, they walk with their feet. But I don’t have to give young people that advice. They’re already doing it. They’re in essence teaching me.
Also, many of our young folks have kids. Most people don’t leave a body of work behind, but you leave your kids behind, and they are your monuments to a better world. If you concentrate on your kids and your kids’ education, that’s one thing you can do, and that’s what I tell them.
It sounds like despite a changing notion of the American Dream, you’re still pretty upbeat about it.
Yeah. We had some pretty famous people on the panel talking about this. There was an amazing amount of consistency from all those people and yet they come from very different walks of life. They were all optimistic. They talked about the tremendous resources that this nation has. They all said the definition of the American Dream is changing. We talked about a lot of bad things, but in the final analysis, they were upbeat about it, too.
Listen to a Clip from the Panel Discussion
Listen to a clip from the “The American Dream Revisited” panel.
Learn more about Booz Allen's participation in the 2009 Aspen Ideas Festival.
story posted July 2, 2009
