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
The American dream is still possible to access, we as people just have to fight our way to win the American dream achievement, and let everyone else knows the dream is still attainable. In the book, Friday Night Lights by Bissinger it has stated, “ Aaron Giebel had begun work on his house
The “American Dream” is overrated. Let’s just face it, it is dead. Not only is this a dream that is almost lusted after by many Americans, this is a widely desired illusion that is far out of reach for most working class people. The American Dream is more than the lifestyle of white picket fences that hold backyard barbecues with your neighbors. It’s earning a living wage that creates a comfortable quality of life, having the security of retirement, and giving your children the opportunity to live a successful life.
In the articles, “The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold by Brandon King, the author argues his opinions on the American dream and how it still alive and attainable, although he realizes that the dream is not the same as it was before. At the time King wrote this article, he was a student at the University of Cincinnati in 2011, three years after the stock market crash in 2008. With the timing of the stock market crashing, this gave King the idea of writing about the American dream and how it is today. When the article was published in the college book “They say, I say” we the reader saw that King redefined the American Dream as "the potential to work for an honest, secure way of life and save for the future." Replacing what he described
It is clear that people believe that the universal ideal of the American Dream is rather difficult to achieve since our economy is at a downfall; this is why people have become pessimistic about the American Dream. Personally I think achieving the rags to riches American Dream is a one in a million, luck-based accomplishment that is nearly impossible. I believe the more resources and connections you have your chances of achieving your goals are higher, but that concept is based off of pure luck. The sad reality of the matter is that many people give up easily or accept the reality of the situation they are in. Everyone has said, “Dream as if you’ll live forever” but if you were to look at the lifestyles and goals people have, no one lives by that phrase. As college students, we all have similar goals. We want to get through school in order to someday have a secure career. A majority of us do not dream of becoming the next Bill Gates because we are realistic. People are aware of the hardships our country is facing; therefore we dream of what we know is an appropriate approach to the American Dream. It is sad that the Dream is not as optimistic as it was in history, but time changes everything.
The American Dream started as a belief that anyone could come to the U.S. from any background, any economic profile, and find work. They could work hard, earn a living, and achieve happiness and financial security. In The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold by Brandon King, the author quotes a line from a New York Times survey that states “… Americans still believe that it is possible to start poor, work hard, and become rich in America” (Seelye, 2009). This quote perfectly embodies what the American Dream used to mean to people. The quote is from 2009 as well, so even seven years ago people had this opinion. It also states that when American’s were asked what the American Dream refers to, most of them said something like “financial security” or “being able to retire without struggling”. It
What is the American Dream? Is the American Dream still alive? How do we maintain the American Dream? These are all questions that Brandon King answers thoroughly in his article The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold?. King gives us reason to believe that the once strongly believed in American Dream is far from dead. He goes so far as to even tell us how to keep it alive. King does make it clear, however, that the Dream has changed from what it once was.
Part of the American Dream is to land a successful job; however, finding work isn't as easy as it seems. With the increase in the joblessness, more people are competing for the same position. Moreover, these jobs are hard to come by. Many people are getting fired from their posts because companies often downsize or can't afford to keep them. When this happens, more people are becoming unemployed, and less jobs are available. Now the American Dream is becoming harder to pursue because individuals can't find a career to obtain a source of income. Even within the jobs, many people aren't getting the same opportunity as
The Great Recession that began in 2007 introduced people to a feeling not since felt since the Great Depression of the 30’s and 40’s. It reintroduced a new generation to the realization that we cannot take anything for granted. It sprung up fears in a fearless population, and out of it born a stress like no other. We can harness that stress; we own it as individuals, employees, as employers, as caretakers of the future.
Many years ago today, the United States of America was the prime example of prosperity and opportunity. It established America with the idea that its citizens would be guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Today, it is true that people have liberties and are free to pursue happiness. However, in recent years, in the worst recession since the Great Depression. Unemployment, growing economy inequality, and medical care have skyrocketed. Despite the odds, the American Dream is still a goal that many people strive for and hope to reach. In fact, an essay written by Brandon King, The American Dream: Dead, Alive or on Hold? He says, “the American dream is a dream in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with the opportunity for each according to his/her ability and achievement…” (King 610-611). Therefore, the problem with the American Dream lies not within the dream itself, but within the means people pursue to attain this dream.
Nowadays, many Americans wonder if the American Dream is still alive. At one point in our country, people felt that they could achieve success by working hard. However, after the economic hardships and recession of the 21st century, a number of Americans not only lost income, but some also lost their jobs. Although there has been slow progression to improve the economy, there are those who question whether or not the dream of Americans can ever be achieved again. With unemployment levels still high and salaries failing to increase, there certainly is doubt in most of Americans. In his essay, Brandon King formulates ways to redefine and change the way to look at the American dream. After analyzing King’s essay, one can see his view as believing that the dream is still very much intact. As he points out, the American economy is a very complex system that has had downfalls, but there is always a way to get back up from it. Regardless of your economic status (poor or middle class), if one has a working job, it is possible to succeed based on how much someone is willing to work to achieve their goals. As King would agree, the American dream is not only still alive and well, but anyone can reach success.
In these current economic times, people have lost jobs. People have lost faith in the economy since the worth of their money keeps falling. Businesses are failing left and right because of the lack of confidence in the system. Banks have folded because of the amount of people who are unable to pay their loans, leaving the banks without funds. The auto industry is failing as people cannot afford the new cars being produced by Detroit. Confidence in the economic system of the United States is very low. How can the country recover from this economic recession? Some economists would say that the government should step in to save the day by pumping funds into the system. President Obama signed a massive stimulus bill in an attempt to turn the
Being equal means that we all have that opportunity to succeed, it doesn 't mean that we all have the same things. Some people will work much harder to succeed, they should have more than people who don 't want to work to succeed.The American Dream is that every United States citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, initiative, and happiness. But many wonder if it is still alive today. Many studies have proven that the American dream is still alive today. The American Dream still exists because the unemployment ratio has decreased , the salary for the jobs has increased, and people have freedom.
The United States of America has this idea that everyone can live the American Dream, and that we are a perfect nation. It is taught from a young age that the American Dream is promising for anyone to have. Parents and teachers tell us to shoot for the stars and that we can achieve anything we put our minds to. But as I progressed throughout life, I question the American Dream is a made up thing to get the economy back up and running again. According to
This recession has been the biggest economic struggle in my lifetime. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. The event that led to this recession is the housing crisis, where banks were giving out loans, almost without any restrictions. People were getting involved in one of the best economic times in our history. Confidence was everywhere and the ideal mindset hit everyone. When the economy hit all new highs, people thought the supply and demand chain would continuously rise. The business cycle seemed to be a lie to many Americans. However, the business cycle is real and the world lives a part of it everyday. When deregulation became extreme and private companies, especially banks, got all the power, nothing could stop them
Over the past few years our country and the rest of the world has experienced an economic crisis. For the United States, it’s been one of the worst economic recessions since the Great Depression during the 1930’s. The recession was caused by many downfalls but the majority was caused by the collapse of the housing market.