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American Dream Is Still Alive

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American Dream is Still Alive My whole life I grew up believing that there is such thing as the American Dream. The last couple years my faith in that has been tested for sure. Today there are many problems with the economy; there are many people out there who think there's no such thing as the American Dream anymore. “The creation of a government that is out of control, and thus out of touch, robs every citizen, preventing fulfillment of the original American Dream (Thomas 569).” I agree with this, however I am still proud to be an American and I believe that no matter how hard it is, you can do anything you put your mind to. It's not going to be easy; in fact it will be much more challenging than it used to be when the economy was …show more content…

America has recently fallen into a great recession, and though some claim we are no longer in a recession, our country and has never quite bounced back. Our economy is fragile and unstable. “In June 2009….native born workers lost 1.2 million [jobs] (Herbert 565).” Businesses are afraid to hire more workers; for fear that consumers aren’t comfortable spending money quite yet. Consumers are afraid to spend money for fear that they won’t be earning any more. People who were once financially stable are barely getting by, some even homeless. This recession has been said to be equal to, if not worse than, the Great Depression. “The human suffering in the years required to recover from the recession will continue to be immense (Herbert 565).” Recovery may be happening, but is definitely an unstable process. Jobs are still hard to come by and a living wage is still almost unheard of. “The U.S. needs to develop a full-employment economy that provides jobs for all who want to work at pay that enables workers and their families to enjoy a decent standard of living (Herbert 565).” In this day and age, it is as much about earning a wage that pays the bills as it is to have a job. What’s the point of working 45 hours a week if it doesn’t pay all your bills? Many people are willing to work the jobs that they may have never considered before, but those jobs don’t come close to paying a living wage. Potential small

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