Who Is The American Dream?

Does being American mean that you’re an American citizen, or does it mean that you have the same rights and decisions as someone who is a successful American citizen? These decisions include choices you make in order to better yourself in life, whether it has to do with your choice in career, or what you want to do in life. Making decisions, and having choices comes with freedom, as a person, and that reflects on being an American everywhere in the world, even though you’ve never been in America. To be an American means that you have the freedom, and rights to do what you want, be who you are, and be/ become who you want. This right of having the freedom to do what you want, can be elaborated by someone’s life chances.

Except it has become challenging to pay for the education those people want. “More than 3 quarters of Americans say it has become more difficult to pay for college in the past few years”(Marello). The American dream has become almost impossible for those who are in debt. With the cost of college increasing people turn to work so that they can have some sort of income to be able to support themselves. Even for those who move to America to achieve the American dream.

Many people have come to America for adventure, opportunity, freedom, and the chance to experience the particular qualities of the American landscape. The American Dream is the idea that every United States citizen, including immigrants and residents, should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. America somewhat provides access to the American dream, it is more so the citizen who provides access to the dream for themselves. Even though they encountered many trials and tribulations, with persistence, people such as Langston Hughes in “I Too Sing America and Anzia Yezierska in “America and I” they were able to achieve their individual American Dream.

To make money, you need to have a job. To have a good job, you need and education. To further your education you need money to pay for college. It’s an oxymoron. In the 1950’s sending a child to college would on be 18% of the parent’s annual income. While today it would be 79% of their gross income (mybudget360). In the 50’s, tuition of the University of Pennsylvania was $600 a year compared to the current tuition at $40,000 (2). This supports that anyone attempting to succeed at their version of the American dream, whatever it may be, could ultimately fail because of the massive amount of debt they would be in. Whether they achieve this dream or give up because of the impossible standards.

The "American Dream" is marked as unattainable in John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men. This is mostly shown in the case of George, Lennie, Candy, Crooks, and Curley's wife. These characters all have admitted to thinking about the "American dream" concept, and the freedom to pursue happiness and their dreams.

The problem for this still exists, and as young adults are growing up, many drop out of college or do not attend college at all because they enter the workforce at an early age. With this, the American Dream for

I have no doubt that if you persist, you will succeed.”(Ballantyne). He explains later that the american dream is not made possible by the government, but by you. In spite of this, we should not overlook the possibilities of getting a better job to achieve your american dream is by having a higher education. According to Morgan Finkeldey opinion in the article “Is the American Dream Attainable” by fijourney.com, she argues that” One credit at Columbia University in 1970 cost $40; a credit at Columbia in 2014 costs $1624. That is a 3960% difference over only over 44 years. If that wasn’t difficult enough, the interest rates on student loans are only getting higher. This leads college students to be in debt for years after they finish their schooling.”(Finkeldey,2015). From this quote, you can gather that many students are paying off their debt from getting a higher education to get a better job. This also means that it will take years to pay that debt off, and even with a high paying job,with the rising

According to an article in the Economist, “Is College Worth it?”, the wage gap between full time employees with a college degree and full time employees with only a high school diploma is around $17,500 a year, with differences in regard to which degree a worker has. However, the price of education is going up. In 1970, the annual tuition for Yale was $2,550, while the minimum wage was $1.60 an hour, meaning in order to pay a year’s tuition to Yale; one had to work an average of 6.4 hours a day for 250 days a year. The 2014 tuition for Yale is $45,800, which means at $7.25 an hour a student would have to work 25.3 hours a day for 250 days in order to pay (Natalie). Many students take internships and work minimum wage jobs in order to reduce the debt they must take on in order to graduate, and the current minimum wage cannot support the cost of a college education. Logically speaking, if no one can afford a college education, employees with a college education will become rarer, and the wage gap will increase, making it more important to get a college education, increasing the amount a debt people are willing to take on to gain a degree, increasing the cost of a degree, all the while reducing the quality of life of everyone except for those who stand on the financial pillars supported by inadequate

The mounting student debt of college graduates is holding many back from achieving their life goals. People are constantly told that they can do anything they want. This is not true for a multitude of reasons. Whatever one’s idea of the American Dream is it is not always as achievable as it is said to be. An example from an article called Constrained After College states that, among all U.S. college graduates the average student debt is $23,300 (Gleason). Reasons backing why the opportunity is not assured is that many believe that things like fear of student debt make it harder to find salaried careers to start a life out of. Many also believe if there was a poor up bringing in a family, you have every chance to make it a better life. However, families in that position don’t always have the resources and funds to give that opportunity to their

One of the most noticeable setbacks for youths striving for the American Dream today is the large increase in college education costs. It is not news to any American that education is the largest equalizer in the country. With that being said, the importance placed on schooling is extremely large, youth are required by law to attend a minimal and Elementary and Junior High School Education before being given the option to take a different path. According author of The College Trap Gordon Wadsworth, “…if the cost of college tuition was $10,000 in 1986, it would now cost the same student over $21,500 if education had increased as much as the average inflation rate but instead education is $59,800 or over 2 ½ times the

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.

Growing up, I became familiarized with the concept of the America dream, and seen the personification of it through different experiences. I interpreted this vision as the life I was living; completed with family, comfort, religion, education, and extra-circulars. Both of my parents work their hardest to provide a comfortable, middle-class lifestyle for me and my four siblings. Involved in this lifestyle was private Christian education, athletics, church, music, and annual vacations. Furthermore, I am from Northeast New Jersey, an area which exemplifies suburbia with its close proximity to New York City. I live in a quiet, mostly white, and virtually crime-free town. My house is located within a neighborhood on the end of a street, giving it

It’s hard to tell when someone starts to daydream about what his or her life could be. It must start early because as a child, I’ve always envisioned my future life to be the American dream. I must have inherited that dream for my mother; she came to the United States from Mexico when she was merely 15 years old. She came to pursue the same dream; she wanted to have the opportunity to achieve wealth and success. Growing up in a traditional Hispanic household is something I will always cherish, but a characteristic of Hispanic culture is the mindset that women were made to be housewives and mothers. This trait blended in with my American dream, I thought as a child, perhaps I could be the mother that was always baking and cleaning. I wanted a two-story house with a white picket fence and an American Flag in the front yard, the ideal family of three with a golden retriever, I wanted to be the perfect housewife; I wanted the American Dream. As a child your dreams haven’t been affected by reality, but over time your dreams change. I realized in life there is so much more than just the materialistic aspect. My American dream consisted of material things; I never wished to be happy, but to just to have things. Now, my greatest aspiration in life is to be happy; which to me means to be financially stable, to earn a master’s degree, and have a wonderful job that allows me to give back to the community. The biggest difference between my American dream and my goal to be happy is that

The American Dream can be defined as achieving the highest level of economic success for an individual and their family. Americans are brought up in a culture where they are told that if they start from the bottom and put in the maximum amount of hard work they too will achieve The American Dream. The dream itself is subjective to an individual's needs but most often includes homeownership, financial stability, job stability, and a better future for the next generation. The Washington Post article by Robert J. Samuelson discussed how the death rates of non Hispanic middle aged whites has gotten significantly worse throughout the years, and as a result men were dying even younger. The causes of death are most often suicide, overdose, or alcohol related. Researchers have attributed these deaths to be a direct result of income inequality and the social crisis. Therefore, I believe the American Dream is killing us. The American Dream is killing those who do not know how to appropriately seek help when faced with unemployment and mental health concerns. The American Dream is responsible for the death of the middle class, the social crisis, and the internal upset when the dream is not achieved.

While the meaning of the American Dream has evolved multiple times between 1865 and 1980, almost every person agreed on as to what the American Dream meant in their respective time periods. The definition of the American Dream in some form has always consisted of freedom, and the ability to advance economically. Also, in more recent times things such as owning a suburban home, moving into the middle-class, being able to spend on consumer goods, and having a perfect family became a part of the American Dream. However, throughout American history there has always been groups who have not had equal access to the American Dream. External factors such as legislation, racism, sexism, and the political environment, resulted in former slaves, blacks, poor Americans, women, and immigrants not having fair access to aspects of the American Dream such as complete freedom, equal opportunity, the ability to advance economically, and the ability to enjoy the luxuries of an affluent society. Between 1865 and 1900 former slaves did not have equal access to aspects of freedom such as, “Self-ownership, family stability, religious liberty, political participation, and economic autonomy.” Later on, between 1900 and 1939 lower-class Americans, women, and immigrants did not have equal opportunity to advance economically. Later on, the American economy shifted after the second World War, and Americans were moving into the middle-class, however blacks, and immigrants did not have equal access to the