The
Financial Times of London went looking for people struggling to achieve the American Dream and found Mark and Connie Freeman of Minneapolis. It's not a buoyant piece, but the Freemans are both employed, their house is worth more than they paid for it, and their refrigerator magnets are funny in an off-color way even if they aren't made by Minneapolis' own
Magnetic Poetry.
"Every now and then the Freemans invite their neighbours round to their front porch, to watch the world go by, drink beer and eat Connie's justly renowned dish of �Minnesota wild rice. In the best American spirit, Mark and Connie are active neighbourhood people. They are the types who shovel your snow, volunteer for school events, and coach the baseball little league--Mark has done all three.
"It takes optimism to be like this. But in the past few years the Freemans have been running low on it. 'I guess the penny dropped in the last 18 months when we finally realised that it's always going to be like this--we are never going to be able to retire on our savings,' says Connie."
Read the full article
here.