The American Dream Essay

The idea of the American dream revolves around attaining happiness, success and equality. For higher wealth classes obtaining these components aren't a concern; but for many, the American Dream has become a nightmare. For the poor being able to obtain simple necessities such as food, clothing and shelter is a daily struggle. The price of being poor is a lot costlier then those in the realm of the wealthy. Based on the current economic and social systems in America it does not provide everyone with a fair chance to achieve the “American Dream”. In todays society many Americans believe money is the only way to happiness. True or not true, money certainly isn't a hindrance to obtaining the necessary components for survival. But if the American Dream is no longer about happiness and freedom it becomes solely about wealth and possession. "Money cannot buy happiness." (Anonymous, Spring Board pg.81) represents the concept that money doesn't necessarily play apart in your emotional well-being. Today, materialism is more important than character. Money isn't everything; you don't need it to be happy and certainly not to achieve "The American Dream". In addition to that, although money can jump-start your future it can also drive you into the ground. Dana Gioia, the author of "Money", says "...Money holds heads above water..." Implying money plays a crucial part in keeping your dreams alive while America demands so much. Although finances are a building block to ones version of the

The American dream is a rhetoric of hope and mobility to reach the heights of economic sustainability that you wish to achieve. The idea is that the amount of effort you put forth will emanate the amount of success you can produce as a byproduct of American society. This concept however couldn’t be further from the truth, as many have tried to work up for years but only got slightly better at best then they say what they were nearly a decade ago. Many researchers have demonstrated that not only has the American Dream often times been influenced by our socioeconomic roots, but that to progress out of it is like a dime in a dozen. Since education provides students the material to move onto the larger job industry, and because the disparity between high school graduates and college graduate has increased so drastically, Americans are clamoring for college now more so than ever before. Student debt has been an issue that has kept many Americans in the lower end of the social class spectrum to miss out on utilizing college resources. Many financial aid programs have been established to attempt to decrease this tendency, particularly the Pell grant having the most success. Unfortunately, despite the initial success of the Pell grant program, it still has its limitations on how much help it can provide to underprivileged students. An incentive based scholarship program such as the Performance-based scholarships where attendance rates, passing classes, and student involvement

Immigrants dreamed of coming to the United States for years. The United States is emerging and becoming more industrialized. Immigrants wanted a this thriving country for their own. They also wanted the government to protect each person’s opportunity to pursue their own idea of happiness. So these families immigrated and came to America to live the American Dream. The American Dream us achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking, and hard work, not by chance. Both sacrifice and risk-taking may have been hard for some families to accomplish in order to come to America, but it was necessary. These families that really had a passion to live in America, and to be happy needed to put in hard work, to get back a good result. The American Dream is something that needs to be worked for, not taken for granted and was not achieved by chance, it was achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking, and hard work.

Through everybody’s eyes is their own version of the American Dream. Whether it’s the stereotypical dream with a good job, a family, and a house with a white picket fence, or it could be just getting by at the end of the month financially. The American Dream doesn’t have a specific image but rather a particular mindset. Lots of people have a goal in their life that they have to work hard to be successful towards that goal, but in most cases that goal may be unrealistic.

One thing I think they have failed to acknowledge is that when they were my age, their single family home was roughly 20 thousand dollars, that if today sold would be almost four times that amount. As for going to college it’s almost like a catch 22. You can either go to college with hopes of being eligible for grants or scholarships or go into debt. The kind of debt that makes you consider selling a kidney on the black market type of debt. According to the article ‘Generation ‘screwed’’ nearly 52 percent of millennials lay awake at night thinking about the stress from everyday life and in spite of all this debt and a college degree you still aren’t guaranteed a job, or the other option try and find a job that pays more than minimum wage, that offers dental insurance. It seems that most of us are just trying to survive ourselves, yet were expected to have relationships, start families, and live the American

Once my brother graduated high school, my mother moved 500 miles away, to Connecticut. I decided to remain at home in West Virginia with my father. For various reasons, such as drugs and alcohol, living with him was no longer in my best interest. At this time, I was half way through high school. For a few months, I spent time living with friends. Before long, my grandmother, who I'm not particularly close to, graciously allowed me to live with her. She lives below the poverty line. In order to live in her house, I was driven to support myself. I work between 20-30 hours a week, which allows me to pay for bills, my vehicle, food, and etc. As soon as I graduate, I will be living on my own, and paying for my college tuition, by myself. It is difficult now to make ends meet, and in the coming college year the financial difficulty will greatly increase. I am endeavoring through these hard times, and I will only continue to do that by keeping my grades up as well as having the endless

The American Dream has not changed over the years of people wanting a good paying job, to own their own home and have a family. The way of achieving that has changed though. More and more people want to be wealthy and reach the top social class where there is economic freedom. The U.S. has been going through a tremendous

The American dream is the belief that anyone, from anywhere, can make a living for themselves and their family. That any man or woman can come up from the bottom and grasp for the grail that dangles before them with enough hard work. However now a days the “American Dream” seems to be exactly what we call it, a dream. A synthetic living belief that people only need to make it into America to have a better life when that simply just is not the case. The American Dream was and is an amazing idea, in theory at least. A theory that all will find work, that all will have jobs, and that none shall be left behind on the train of prosperity that we call America. But when this dream is applied to the Americans in todays society it falls short, where those who don’t get what they want lose their faith and soon find them selves not in gods

Over the years the American Dream has shifted and adapted to meet the social and economic conditions of that time. Although some minor components change there are still a few aspects of the dream that have always remained constant. Look at America in the 1930s and look 2016, laws have changed, but the pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness remain constant. One of the main reason people come to America is to find solace in the freedoms America provides. As America continues to evolve, the countries diversity continues to evolve as well. The various social and economic all have one common goal, to provide for their families. Ideally, the American dream has been depicted a cookie cutter picture perfect

The fact that neither of my parent have attended college makes it harder for me to know what the financial situation would look like. As the first person in my family to attend college, I never knew that money can become one of the biggest obstacles that can affect my chances of reaching an education. Everyday I am faced with thoughts on whether or not I would have enough money to finish and receive my undergraduate degree. Renting a house with four other students, paying the monthly bills, and buying daily needs (foods, hygiene, etc) can be frustrating when money is so tight for me to pay all on my own. I am currently a student employee at the university, but the amount that I earned each month only covers the rent and the monthly spendings

The biggest challenge that I have encountered thus far in my life is the process of acquiring funds needed to fulfill my lifetime dream of becoming a pediatrician. I recently read an article on cnnmoney.com which was entitled " Too poor to pay for college, too rich for financial aid". I am in the same situation in that according to the financial aid guidelines my estimated family contribution automatically places me in the category of students believed to not have a need for financial aid. On paper it would seem that my parents are wealthy but in reality after paying car notes , insurance, utilities, mortgage (which is more than the current value) credit cards and taking care of my grandparents who lives outside of the US they barely manage

The American Dream was a white picket fence, and a four-bedroom house. Children laugh as they run from the house and play in the yard. A nice dog runs around them and barks and plays with them. The mother watches from their porch. She gets to stay home with their family as her husband only works 40 hours a week using his college degree. They are in no debt and own a car they bought off the lot. The children always have new clothes and shoes. They never need hand me downs. Now we hope that when we get home that we have enough food to make it to pay day. Out debt piles up as we must cut another check for rent instead of paying off our loans. Our American Dream is just having extra income at the end of the night.

Living in a first generation family makes even the most simplest things tedious. Both of my parents were born in third world countries raised in the poor, and coming into the United States seeking for a better life. Both of my parents I could claim are not financially stable and sometimes have to work extra hours to make money enough to pay the bills. My mom has not only had to raise me, but also my other four nephews and nieces due to my brother losing custody. My father works as a truck driver, there will be weeks where he’s working back to back. Then, one or two where he won’t work and he ends up not getting payed, and we get backed up in our bills. Meanwhile, my mom is only a hotel supervisor and makes just enough to buy groceries for my

Some people who became American didn't always have the perfect life, especially when it is taking place by individuals who struggled their whole life in a disadvantaged society. As a matter of fact they migrate to the United States so they can live their dream and to be able to acquire being called an American. Not only do they move, but also abandon everything in their old home, and move to the United States to start a new life. Sometimes children are left behind so their parents can come to the land of dreams. Due to that the many children are left without their parents in their life's. Therefore, the American dream is necessary for them because they don't have many things in their hands, such as clothing, wealth, an opportunity in life and a different lifestyle. They also look at many Americans in some countries and assume everything is simpler in the United States. Therefore, the desire of being an American can provoke into having various emotions. Occasionally when they don’t feel like they have reached their target, they may receive it in as their way of life is gone and turnover on their dream. But that’s not what an American is, an American is someone who is hardworking, shows patriotism to their country and freedom.

An article on Time.com written in November 2015 by Charlotte Alter displayed several statistic sources that show Millenials breaking records on living with their families and are more financially dependent. The U.S Census released a graph that showed that 15.1% of individuals aging 25-34 are still living with their parents, the highest proportion since 1960 according to demographer Mark Mather. It is not surprising why this many Millennials are still living with their parents when accounting for the difficult job market, and of course student loans. An article written by Travis Mitchell on USNEWS.com, one of the most popular websites for college data, said that public national university tuition spiked by a staggering 296% from 1995 to 2015. Tuition has nearly tripled while minimum wage has just more than doubled since 1995. With such a low wage and high tuition, what happens when your parents are not