The Unrealistic American Dream The Declaration of Independence sparked a political revolution throughout the American colonies in 1776. “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” is a revolutionary concept that is still instilled in our ambitions today (Declaration of Independence). With that idea came the American Dream; it was believed that everyone can achieve prosperity with hard work and persistence. Today, that can be attributed to economic mobility: the ability to improve one’s economic status. The American Dream is becoming harder to attain as the decades pass. In the essay “The Working Poor Are Not Getting By in America,” Aaron Bernstein and Michelle Conlin formally use effective rhetorical techniques to successfully argue that economic mobility is becoming a frequent struggle for many lower-class working Americans to achieve.
The first way Bernstein and Conlin created an effective argument was by their technique of using logical appeals. In the first two paragraphs, the authors evoke emotion from their audience by using pathos when inputting the detail of “’the hitter’” who had Katrina Gill “flat for four days” and of her struggle of being severely in debt from …show more content…
The amount of people in poverty in America is ironic considering the United States is known to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Periodically, the belief that if a person is diligent then they will be rewarded does not always apply. No matter the persistence that someone possesses, there are instances where hard work does not pay off. Unless actions are taken to combat poverty, the situation will only become worse. The American Dream is not always possible to obtain, and that is becoming more prevalent today than
The first way Bernstein and Conlin created an effective argument was by their technique of using logical appeals. In the first two paragraphs, the authors evoke emotion from their audience by using pathos when inputting the detail of “’the hitter’” who had Katrina Gill “flat for four days” and of her struggle of being severely in debt from …show more content…
The amount of people in poverty in America is ironic considering the United States is known to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Periodically, the belief that if a person is diligent then they will be rewarded does not always apply. No matter the persistence that someone possesses, there are instances where hard work does not pay off. Unless actions are taken to combat poverty, the situation will only become worse. The American Dream is not always possible to obtain, and that is becoming more prevalent today than