The Amercian Nightmare

People have it all wrong. American life is a vicious cycle.  You're born, go to school through 12th grade, ideally go to college, get a "career," have children, drive a minivan, raise your kids, retire, buy a convertible, and die.  This is what the American dream looks like.  Golden opportunity to contribute to society, exercise your right to vote (which doesn't count anyway,) and climb the corporate ladder. 
What a load of bullshit.
There's a man who has a '66 Volvo P1800S.  He bought it brand new when he was 25.  He's now 72.  It's got almost three million miles on it.  This guy has the right idea.  He bought it for $4,150 brand new.  Granted, that was a lot of money in the '60s, but if you break it down, that's $90 a year.  I pay twice that a month for my car payment.  Obviously, that's not taking into account the money he has spent on maintenance, repairs, fuel, etc. 
Point is, this man is happy with his car, and we could all learn a thing or two from him.  Do you think he's worried about the economy?  Nope. 
In this country, we have people driving brand new Lexus', living in $300,000 houses, going on vacations - and many of them are entirely miserable.  A lot of them are upside down on their mortgage.  Where's the dream in that? 
But we gobble it up.  We see a commercial for Apple's newest product, the iWipe 12 - that does everything a space shuttle does, plus it wipes your ass - and we just have to have one.  We subsequently discard our iWipe 11 as if it were a child conceived in the bathroom of a Ramones concert. 
Why do we do the same thing with our cars?  The amount of time, energy, and money that goes into creating a car is immense, especially since our economy is such a global entity these days.  One car may have materials from three different continents.  Mr. Volvo's carbon footprint is infinitesimal next to your average Prius driver.  He will never have to replace a battery that costs thousands of dollars, there's little to no plastic on his car to find its way into landfills, and his fuel mileage will make compact car drivers jealous even on a bad day. 
But his Volvo doesn't have infrared sensors that can alert the driver of the flatulence of the driver in front of him on the highway.  It has no blue teeth, and if he gets lost, he'd better have a smartphone, otherwise he'll have to pull out the map in the glove box.  And no one can fold a map!  That would be an absolute disaster!
This guy, however, doesn't have to give two rat's shits about the economy.  He's not the one ruining it by getting himself into an ocean of debt.  If the dollar was suddenly worth as much as a flea's dick, Mr. Volvo will still be able to fill his car and go wherever the hell he wants.  And that sounds like the real American dream to me.