Our new video asks, “Is the American Dream dead?” With the release of the 2011 Index of Economic Freedom, one element of the report should be inescapable to American readers: out-of-control spending is a serious threat to our country’s prosperity. The enormity of the problem should not be underestimated—last year, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman even called our frighteningly high debt the “most significant threat to our national security“.

For the second year in a row, the United States remained mired in the “mostly free” category and while economic freedom grew globally, in the US, it continued to decline. While troubling, these trends are not irreversible. Nonetheless—as the video points out—if the American Dream is to be saved, Americans will have to fight for it.