What Happened To The American Dream Essay

What Happened to the American Dream? “The U.S worked hard to create the American dream of opportunity. Joseph Stiglitz a Nobel prize recipient and an economic professor at Columbia University said, but today that dream is a myth”(Picchi). The “American Dream” is a concept used to describe the American lifestyle. The idea of the American Dream has been imbedded in our heads as the ultimate goal and definition of success. The media, the T.V shows and the books push it in our head what our American dream should be. When the books and the T.V shows describe the perfect life, the suburban home with the white picket fence and the perfect family is what they show. Despite this nation’s fundamental beliefs, not all Americans are born equal, it is economic and social class that determines the opportunity and success a person can achieve during their lifetime. The American Dream is dead for many Americans that their goals and aspirations become so out of reach and not obtainable. A poll by Alternet showed that fifty-nine percent of people agree that the American Dream has become impossible for most people to achieve (Eskow). In the 1920s the American Dream was attainable, today has become much harder to achieve. A study done by Stanford, Harvard, and the University of …show more content…
Samuleson believes that the American Dream is being used to cover up problems within America like struggling to get by and conflicts among groups. Samuelson uses a lot of statistics to get his point across, for example how at least 5 million homeowners have lost their homes through foreclosure since 2007, and how the student debt for college is nearly 1 trillion dollars. Samuelson also says that he thinks there’s nothing wrong with “over-the-top optimism and hope”, but he believes that the idea of the American Dream has become a substitute for addressing real issues