President Obama: Celebrities Like Kim Kardashian, Kanye West Have Skewed the American Dream. By Nikki Schwab.

President Obama: Celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Kanye West have skewed the American Dream. By Nikki Schwab. Red Alert Politics, July 31, 2013.

Obama says poor relatives keep his kids grounded. By Kevin Liptak. CNN, August 1, 2013.


Schwab:

President Obama made an example of celebrity couple Kim Kardashian and Kanye West when he talked about the American Dream this week.

 

The president, chatting with journalist David Blum for an Amazon Singles Interview, said that folks his age often didn’t feel short changed when growing up, even if they didn’t have much.

 

“The reason was because the American dream involved some pretty basic stuff,” Obama said, ticking off a home, a job, education and healthcare. “But I don’t think people went around saying to themselves, ‘I need to have a 10,000 square-foot house.”

 

But now, the culture has augmented that dream, the president said.

 

“We weren’t exposed to the things we didn’t have in the same way that kids these days are,” he began. “There was not that window into the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Kids weren’t monitoring every day what Kim Kardashian was wearing, or where Kanye West was going on vacation, and thinking that somehow that was the mark of success.”

 

The POTUS sat down with Blum during his visit Tuesday to an Amazon.com fulfillment center in Chattanooga, Tenn., where he talked about the middle class. The interview was released via Amazon Kindle on Wednesday.

 

During the discussion, Obama also noted what job he might have if he hadn’t entered politics.

 

“I enjoy teaching. I taught for 10 years. Not full-time, but part-time at the University of Chicago Law School,” Obama said. “I could picture myself being a good teacher.”