ABSTRACT
What happened to the feeling that Americans were the most prosperous and blessed people in the world, with a future as brilliant and full of promise as a sunlit dawn? Perhaps some readers continue to experience that feeling. But the majority of readers more likely are plagued by nagging suspicions that America is about to awaken to a gray and uncertain morning. Evidence mounts to support the conclusion that a permanent cloud cover is forming over the American dream. No longer does the average American worker believe that lifetime employment with one company is possible. No longer does the average American believe that he or she can financially survive a serious illness. Parents worry about the safety of their children at school and about the quality of the education that their children receive. Mothers and fathers work long hours at jobs that barely allow them to make ends meet. Every worker is victim to the recurring nightmare that one day his or her employer will become one of the growing number of corporations in which workers are expendable.
