By G. Rendell. When I go on about how we, as a nation, expend too much time, money and energy (not just human energy) on housing, transportation, unhealthy food and just stuff in general, one or more students often object that I'm attacking The American Dream.  I don't think I am, because I don't think the "dream" they have in mind is the dream which served as the founding ethos of this country.  Living in a McMansion with a three-car garage, commuting an hour or more each day, subsisting on food that doesn't require attentive preparation but contains multiple ingredients we can't pronounce, thinking that "family time" is when we're all on Facebook simultaneously, truly believing that buying the latest widget will somehow provide us with an abiding sense of fulfillment even though no other widget we've ever purchased has managed to do that for more than 10 hours... I don't remember reading about any of those practices in 8th grade American History. Read more...