The American Dream

A The American Dream is an national dream within the United States of upward social mobility (including homeownership) through hard work (including education).

• Context:
  • It can (often) include the goal of Homeownership, reflecting a sense of stability, freedom, and legacy.
  • It can (often) emphasize Education as a means for generational progress and economic mobility.
  • It can (often) be represented by Rags to Riches Stories.
  • It can rely on the exploitation and exclusion of Black people (Coates, 2015).
  • It can be influenced by historical events like the Industrial Revolution, which impacted education and healthcare.
  • It can be underpinned by Protestant Ethics, emphasizing the values of God, family, and work.
  • It can be challenged by economic bifurcation, with rising housing, education, and healthcare costs contrasted with falling prices in other sectors.
  • It can be shaped by government policies, where subsidizing demand and restricting supply lead to higher prices.
  • …
• Example(s):
  • the example of Barack Obama.
  • the example of Alexander Hamilton.
  • the example of Benjamin Franklin, (1706-1790).
  • the example of Frederick Douglass, (1818-1895).
  • the example of John D. Rockefeller, (1839-1937).
  • the example of Arnold Schwarzenegger, (1947-).
  • the example of Ta-Nehisi Coates.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • The Australian Legend.
  • The English Dream.
  • The Russian Soul.
  • an Aristocratic Dream.
  • a Castecratic Dream.
  • a Confusian Dream.
• See: Social Class in The United States, Life, Liberty And The Pursuit of Happiness, U.S. Socio-Economic Mobility, U.S. Declaration of Independence, All Men are Created Equal, Tribalism, Zero-Sum Politics.

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References

2024

• Perplexity
  • The American Dream is an ideal that has evolved over time, representing the aspiration for upward social mobility, economic success, and a better life through hard work and determination. Here are some key points about the American Dream:
  • The phrase was coined by historian James Truslow Adams in 1931, during the Great Depression. Adams defined it as "a dream of a social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."[1][2]
  • Originally, the American Dream was about aspiring to reach one's full potential and rising above one's circumstances through effort and merit, not just acquiring wealth and material possessions.[1] It embodied ideals of equality, democracy, and collective self-improvement.[2]
  • Over time, the phrase became more associated with achieving economic prosperity and upward mobility through hard work.[2][4] Owning a home and achieving a comfortable middle-class lifestyle came to symbolize the American Dream for many.
  • However, concerns have grown that the American Dream is becoming increasingly difficult to attain, especially for certain groups like minorities, women, and the poor.[1] Economic mobility has declined, with fewer children earning more than their parents compared to previous generations.[1][4]
  • While the idea of the American Dream may have been exported successfully to other countries, some argue it has become overly focused on consumerism, materialism, and the accumulation of personal wealth in the United States, straying from its original vision of collective betterment.[1][3]
  • Despite the challenges, the American Dream still holds aspirational value, with many defining it as the ability to live life on one's own terms and achieve success through determination and positive mindset.[5]
  • Citations:

[1] https://www.britannica.com/topic/American-Dream
[2] https://www.bushcenter.org/catalyst/state-of-the-american-dream/churchwell-history-of-the-american-dream
[3] https://s-usih.org/2024/01/the-american-dream-is-that-all-there-is-is-that-all-there-was/
[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/08/opinion/the-american-dream-quantified-at-last.html
[5] https://americancompass.org/american-dream-isnt-dead/

2021

• (Wikipedia, 2021) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Dream Retrieved:2021-1-21.
  • The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, the set of ideals (democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity and equality) in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.

    The American Dream is rooted in the Declaration of Independence, which proclaims that “all men are created equal” with the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Also, the U.S. Constitution promotes similar freedom, in the Preamble: to "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity".

2019

• https://prospect.org/economy/myth-rugged-individual/
  • QUOTE: The American dream promises that anyone can make it if they work hard enough and play by the rules. Anyone can make it by pulling themselves up by their “bootstraps.” Baloney. The truth is: In America today, your life chances depend largely on how you started — where you grew up and how much your parents earned. Everything else—whether you attend college, your chances of landing a well-paying job, even your health—hinges on this start. ...

    ... So, why is America still perpetuating the fallacy of the self-made individual? Because those in power want you to believe it. If everyone thinks they're on their own, it's easier for the powerful to dismantle unions, unravel safety nets, and slash taxes for the wealthy. ...

2018

• https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/08/opinion/sunday/tm-landry-louisiana-school-abuse.html
  • QUOTE: ... The American dream relies on stories like mine and the Landry situation to distract from the American reality: There is a conveyor belt that sends most young people, especially from neighborhoods like mine, from nothing to nowhere, while the chosen few are randomly picked off and celebrated. ...

    ... There is another secret, too: The American dream can also destroy people who make it “out.” I had achieved, by my late 20s, about everything a kid is supposed to, but I was cracked up by the process. So were many of my friends. Before I finished my book about that experience, one of my closest friends from Yale, who’d made a similar Horatio Alger journey, took his own life. He came to me in a dream a few months later and told me: “You know, we did a lot of things we wouldn’t advise anybody we loved to do.” I knew what he meant. If you catch it from the right angle, a kid picking himself up by his bootstraps can look like a suicide. We “success stories” are driven from elementary school on to be perfect. To ignore whatever hardships we’ve endured, whatever loneliness or pain we feel in the new worlds we’re sent off to. ....

2015

• (Coates, 2015) ⇒ Ta-Nehisi Coates. (2015). “Between The World And Me.”
  • QUOTE:
    • "The Dream thrives on generalization, on limiting the number of possible questions, on privileging immediate answers. The Dream is the enemy of all art, courageous thinking, and honest writing."
    • "The Dream is treehouses and the Cub Scouts. The Dream smells like peppermint but tastes like strawberry shortcake."
    • "The Dream rests on our backs, the bedding made from our bodies."
    • "The plunder of black life was drilled into this country in its infancy and reinforced across its history, so that plunder has become an heirloom, an intelligence, a sentience, a default setting to which, likely to the end of our days, we must invariably return."
    • "The Dreamers will have to learn to struggle themselves, to understand that the field for their Dream, the stage where they have painted themselves white, is the deathbed of us all."

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