The American Dream and Class Separation Essay example

Today, in America there are many people who struggle to get their dream job and live an American dream but due to the fact that everyone is applying to the exact same job they cannot accomplish the dream they have always dreamt of. This means that there is plenty of competition between people chasing the same dream. In “Money and Success: The Myth of Individual Opportunity” Gary Colombo discusses how many people live in the myth of an American dream. People assume the American Dream will make them happy by having the dream job and being like everyone else. While Colombo talks about how the American dream is a myth of having money and being successful, Diana Kendall discusses in “Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption” how the media doesn’t just portray the different social classes differently, the media glamorizes the one and show the other one unfairly and make it seem like if one is poor it is the end of the world. The Higher social class is considered to be rich and successful, and believed to have everything “handed to them”. The middle class is mostly considered the working class and are those who have a hard time getting what they want, but are still able to do something for themselves and their progress. And then the lower class is portrayed as being in poverty in society and not considered to be well off just because of their education and job status. Yet many Americans work and study their hardest to achieve the American Dream and still are

In the article, "Class in America", Gregory Mantsios (Myths and Realities 2000) shows us how what class a person is in affects his or hers life more than they think. This article is written sufficiently well however, it does have some weak spots. I will prove my thesis by examining his use of examples and showing factual data and statistics, but also show how this article could have been better.

Writer Gregory Mantsios in his article “Class in America”, talks about these things, and how wide the gap is between the rich and the poor and also discusses how the rich continue to get richer, while the poor continue to get poorer. Mantsios gives his readers the profiles and backgrounds of three hard-working Americans, two of them are white males, whose family background as well as education played a role in their success, while the other person is a black woman who is just above the poverty line despite her work as a nurse’s aide. Through these profiles, Mantsios article shows exactly how sex, race and shows how your parental and educational background of a person can play a role in the things that you achieve. Mantsios also talks about one’s performance in school and the level of school completed can suggest whether or not class that person may belong in.

The obsession with social class impacts peoples lives greatly. You do not have a say what social class you are born into, unfortunately that class transcends into every aspect of your life, no matter how hard you try to rid it. In The Great Gatsby, social class is clearly shown between the lives of the families in East Egg, to the families living in West Egg. There is barely a difference in lifestyles besides the type of money each family has required, whether it is old money or new money. “One things sure and nothings surer. The rich get richer and the poor get children” (Fitzgerald. 5). There is really no way to erase your past or where you came from; when you are poor, you are poor,

To achieve the American Dream, one must work hard and have the dedication to be successful. There are myths relating to this dream leaving lower class members to wonder if the dream exists for them. People in lower class are told if they want to be successful they must put in hard work and true effort. Once they do, they see that they are remaining in the same position they started in. In “Class of America-2012,” Gregory Mantsios states the ideas of class in the US and explains them. One myth addressed in this selection is, “Everyone has an equal chance to succeed. Success in the United States requires no more than hard work, sacrifice, and perseverance: ‘In America, anyone can become a billionaire; it’s just a matter of being in the right

King goes on, stating that achieving the American Dream is the key to conquering inequality between the different social classes in the world. He believes that the differences in social class is they key to bringing our country together. In the essay, it pointed out economists and politicians point of view. They believe that the American Dream is dead because of the difference in social classes and because of that the economy cannot flourish and thus will remain fragile. They state that the economy focuses more on the small wealthy minority than the middle and lower classes. The huge income gap between the social classes is one of the reasons the economists and politicians believe that the American Dream is dead because they think the middle and lower classes can’t possibly move up in the economy and thus can't complete their American Dream. King arguments oppose this. He states that “[t]he American Dream,

In the first article titled “Class in America” by Gregory Mantsios the discussion on class affecting the United States negatively is brought up. Gregory talks about the fact that people do not choose to be poor but they are put into situations where they cannot move up in class. Due to the fact that class creates an immense gap in communities, there are many issues linked to being categorized as the lower class. In the article Gregory states that “class affects more than lifestyle and material well being. It has a significant impact on our physical and mental well-being as well.” CITE) The author connects the idea that if you are in the lower class than you will also deal with other issues include your mental and physical health declining. Alongside this idea, the author also states “All Americans do not have an equal opportunity to succeed, and class mobility in the United States is lower than that of the rest of the industrialized world. (CITE) This goes along with the idea that once your born into a class, breaking out of it is virtually impossible. The author is also making the point that in the United States class is more problematic than other developed nations and because of this not everyone is given the chance to break free from a poor lifestyle.

One component of this idea is a social mobility. Social mobility is the movement of individuals or families within layers of social stratification. For example, if some family of first generation of immigrants (who are usually considered as low-income families) will work hard and get some college education, they probably can improve their social-economic status and move upward direction to the lower-middle class or even to the middle class level. However, to move from the low-income class status upward to the upper class status will be very difficult or even impossible for this family. As was written above, only 1-3% of American population is in the upper or upper-upper classes and this is like “private club” for the rest of population. The membership of this “club” is difficult to earn; many members of this upper class group received their statuses from their parents or grandparents and this looks like a “cast” of privileged people. This privilege gives many advantages and influence in political, educational, religious and other institutions. These advantages make upper class as a dominate group and underprivileged lower classes as subordinate group; and this stratification is describing classism. Carol Brantley and her colleagues (2003) state that “Classism is the systematic oppression of subordinated groups (people without endowed or acquired economic power, social influence, and privilege) who work for wages for dominant group (those who have access to control of the necessary resources by which other people make their living).” Classism says that upper class members are more educated and smarter than low-income and working classes’ members because they and their children can afford very expensive or exclusive education worldwide. Whereas, oppressed groups are lacking this opportunity to get prestige

They’re many reasons why many Americans are disturbed by the topics of social classes, inequality, and the lack of class mobility. One reason is the way that the media portrays thing. The media makes it seems as if everything is fine, and that those who speak out about social class, inequality, and the lack of class mobility are just people who want “free things” or “did not work hard enough”. In the other hand the media always portrays those in the top bracket of the income as hard working Americans, who through struggling obtained their wealth. When in reality many millionaires did not earn their money instead they inherited it from their parents.

The American Dream is the national ethos that people’s lives would better and more abundant with many opportunities. Although the “American Dream” is still possible, many minorities, a vast portion of people in middle class, are affected by the lack of social mobility see the realization of the American Dream because of the advantages upper class have like being more wealthy. With money, the upper class can affordable anything they like high tier education in privates or better health insurance. This is a problem because not everyone in the world have the same chance to succeed. In “ LA’s Crisis: High rents, low pay, homelessness rising, and $2000 doesn’t buy much” by Steve Lopez and “Class in America -2012” by Gregory Mantsios share how the lack of mobility affects many individuals in the world. In conclusion, low income individuals are suffering within our society because of

America historically owns the reputation of being the land of opportunity, and for generations immigrants have fled to the United States to experience the freedom and equality our government lays claim to. At the root of this reputation is the American Dream, the belief that with hard work anyone can succeed based solely on his or her merits. While definitions of success vary, the American Dream defines it as the ability to become a "self-made man," thereby rising to a more-than-comfortable state of living. The American Dream is believed to be blind to race, sex, or socio-economic status and at a first glance, seems to be almost Utopian. Conversely, repeated examples and statistics of the lower-classes, those continually facing the harsh

USA is a very big country with a lot of people and the social classes are very important. We can see that social class plays big part of people’s life. Everyday people are working, studying, trying to be better. Even though right now it’s time when everyone has many opportunities in his life, anyway there is a gap between classes and groups of people with same features. And your background probably will build your future. And we need to find what kind of class we have right now and look into these classes. The main idea is that Social Classes still exist and it’s most general part of U.S.A society. There are three reasons why gap between groups still exist.

We live in a country in which people believe that the "American Dream" exists. I do not think there is an "American Dream" that is obtainable in America, or that even exists. You might ask, "Why not?" Well, America is called the freedom land or whatever people want to call it. People immigrate to America to fulfill what they couldn 't in their country, but when they get here and they see it, it is not what they had imagined. I believe that even Americans sometimes can 't even achieve that dream because it just doesn 't exist.

Race still predominantly plays a role in everyday classism. Discriminatory housing practices traps minorities in the lower class for generations. Moreover, America’s healthcare system unfair to people who have low income. Also, Public transportation does not properly serve the needs of those who use it; as well as, it makes it formidable to secure, and maintain a stable job. Additionally, education for the poor unequal in graduation rates; along with, a social polarization against lower class students. Classism in America is an old, yet consistent problem that, creates an unfair economic divide of

I quickly realized my question was not defined as narrow as it should have been. That was when I chose to write about the American dream, the dream that relies on social classes. The dream was simply “a vision of a better, deeper, richer life for every individual, regardless of the position in society which he or she may occupy by the accident of birth. It has been a dream of a chance to rise in the economic scale.” (James Truslow Adams. Samuel pg. 3) The American dream consists of security, wealth, land, education and health, all which are things most of us strive for. The problem is that not everyone in America has equal access to those things. I strongly believe that the American dream is a concept meant to bring hope into the lower class individual, but it also aids the ego of the higher class person. The dream comforts the lower class and in a way forces them to be in awe of the upper class, as they constantly try to reach the top of the hierarchy. The American dream puts the blame on the lower class for being poor, while it celebrates people in the higher classes for making