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Is The American Dream Still Achievable

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The American Dream
When questioning if the American dream is still achievable, one must focus on what the true meaning is, which is where anyone in the US can succeed and have the potential to live a happy, and successful life through hard work, and prosperity. It also entails that anyone who comes to the US should be entitled to various opportunities to live a longer and fuller life. In today’s modern world, it can be quite difficult to make that judgment if the dream is slowly rising or dying. When it comes to looking at how one can live a successful life, there isn’t a particular path. According to Bob Herbert, wherever one chooses to look, there isn’t much left of the dream. With the economy, jobs, school systems, and nonstop-warfare, you’ll …show more content…

Let’s face it; everyday there is much talk of people looking for jobs, interviewing, and praying for a job. Although there is a multitude of job openings across the country. When applying for a job, usually the human resource department is the first to receive the application, and justify if they want to interview that person applying. Consequently, they see over a thousand applications per week, and only select a few to interview, bypassing potential candidates that actually could be amazing, and desperately need the job vs. the candidates that were selected. From my personal perspective, I am aware some jobs require individuals with more experience and higher education. However, I do feel everyone deserves a chance, even potential applicants with no experience. Many people are graduating from college, even graduate schools, and fail to find jobs due to their lack of experience, thus leading them to unemployment. If seeking employers would only give more interested candidates a chance, more citizens would be employed. There is another example of why the US is failing to obtain the decent standard of living, and that would be many who lose their jobs due to discrimination. At the end of the recession in June of 2009, foreign-born workers in the United States gained employment, where native-born workers lost 1.2 million jobs. (TSIS, …show more content…

Well, Cal Thomas suggests in his essay that following old school rules may play a part; studying and staying in school, achieving an undergraduate, or graduate degree, avoiding drugs that can harm your body and mind, and getting married before you have children, and working hard to stay married. (Cal Thomas, Pg. 570) I subside with his suggestion on studying and staying in school, since receiving a college education can expand opportunities, and thus employment. For example; one with a college degree could receive a higher salary, and be able to provide his and or her family a decent living, corresponding with what the American Dream hopes for. “America will never get its act together until we recognize how much trouble we’re really in” (Cal Thomas, Pg. 570) Which is accurate considering many citizens fail to have a college education, thus leading them with fewer job opportunities. Pulling towards a few statistics, 70% of American’s don’t have a college education, which leads them to a lesser paying job, and decreases their chance of achieving the dream. I am aware it is possible to make a decent living without a college education, but according to Cal’s recommendations, it isn’t in the books. Bob Herbert talked about how there should be a need to shape the system, because thousands of teachers are being fired due to cutbacks. if the school system was improved, this would be a step in the right direction. (Bob Herbert, Pg.

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