Beverly Beckham is a Boston Globe columnist who usually only writes about friends and family who have died. People seem to love her articles, as they are always amongst the top-emailed, on boston.com. (More, here.)

Today, however, she laments the changes going on around her, in America.

My parents wouldn't make it today &8212; not without an education, not without family to help them. And that's the big difference between then and now. Then you could work hard and work your way up. Now, you can work hard your whole life and never get ahead.

This is an American tragedy.

I must disagree.

In fact, the rise of the suburbs show the success of the American dream, right? Only because people are living the American Dream are they able to purchase and own ridiculously-large homes. Only because they are able to spend money, haphazardly, are they able to buy stuff they don't need.

If she's pointing out that these types of purchases are obscene, that's one thing.

But to say that it's an "American tragedy", well, I think that goes too far.

More: Big house a symbol of an American tragedy - By Beverly Beckham, The Boston Globe