American Dream Still Exists Even If There Is Only A Small Chance

Overview

The American Dream is simply known as a promise of prosperity and mobility in life to those who live in the United States of America, no matter where they come from, where they were born, or where they stand and how they are. Definitely, there is a fact that America is supported by a series of factors such as education, health care, types of freedom, economy, and security, which all give it the edge to develop into one of the world's leading countries in many fields. It is neither without reason nor natural for many foreigners to think of the United States as a nation of equal opportunities, where anyone with the determination and willingness to work hard to accumulate wealth, can succeed and have a dream life. Indeed, with all that the United States has such as freedom in many aspects and platforms that support the development of each individual or the fact that Exceptionalism has been the dominant theme in the United States history since its founding, is the main reason why it is exceptional. That is the reason which drives huge migrations from all over the world to come to America where seems as a promised land. Most of them gave up their lives in their countries to come to America. However, while the reality is for many people, the American dream is more complicated and far more difficult to achieve. This Dream, in particular, is out of reach for young people across the country, not because of any individual flaw, but because of a diverse combination of social, cultural, and economic forces. This diversity and individual independence in American society and culture inadvertently create different obstacles, depending on each person's background, for them to achieve their dream path.

Discussion

Although, critics have argued that America has become too flawed, I believe that the American Dream still exists today. Although its definition of how a dream is achievable has changed a little year over year depending on elements of times and factors of each period, it has never disappeared. It has just been getting smaller and smaller, also harder and harder for people to obtain. Our mission is to expand it as much as possible so that we can return that dream to the most prosperous state it had.

First of all, mentioning America's job security crisis, the government's credibility, the rise of populism, families crippled by economic hardships, social media as an influence on citizens, and private ownership, which have been affecting the country for years and also give people opportunities and hope to try their best to reach their own wealthy status, is the best way to analyze and dissect this problem. Therefore, how and where the decline of the American Dream comes from, need to be widely known by many people so that there is still a glimmer of hope, even the tiniest, that this prosperity still exists.

History of American Dream

For the last 40 years, Prosperity and Upward Mobility seems to be not as accessible for every individual. This flexibility has gradually been left out by many European countries. Also, wages are stagnated along with fallen union memberships, or massive decrease in manufacturing jobs. These problems have had such a huge impact on the decline of the American Dream that they need to be explicitly addressed. Specifically, Reaganomics during the Reagan Presidency. With the attempt to solve the dire crisis in the country, he deliberately created a big wealth gap by increasing the military spendings while reducing the government supports on domestic programs such as Social Security including reducing benefits for the disabled, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and even education. He also reduced taxes for individuals, businesses, and their burden of regulations in order to fight off inflation and stimulate job growth. However, it left serious consequences mentioned above, which is the wealth gap. The high class kept getting richer and had more influence on the public through their businesses. Poverty rose rapidly and middle class incomes did not even raise. That is why it is not natural that the decline of the union is the cause for income inequality.

Indeed, income inequality is almost inversely proportional to the strength and influence of unions, which are created for the purpose of increasing wages, reducing inequality, closing the wage gap, and creating democracy that works by many ways to involve more people in the political process that they might not otherwise participate in. The greater the strength and stability of the union, the greater the rate of income inequality. Reagan's staunch anti-union stance was partially based on approval of policies that were in his favor. There have been many companies that want to avoid taxes and exploit cheap labor. Another part is that his tax reductions have made the rich richer. Although the middle-class and lower-class families have also benefited from the tax cuts, they have also been “cut” by the government and have suffered from cuts such as their income, and government supports like medicaid, or education. Those benefits go hand in hand as portions of the benefits were taken away and at the same time, people were allowed to keep part of their income. Those issues led to an increased inequality which is a factor that greatly influenced the American Dream when equality is one of the core elements contributing to the Exceptionalism.

Because problems such as labor union or inequality have not been thoroughly resolved, there are many families crippled by economic hardships such as unemployment and healthcare. Private ownership is the factor that can be used to determine whether the American dream becomes a reality or not. Let's look at the current economic situation. Owning a home or being able to pay off loans has become more difficult. This instability would result in a great risk of dissolution. American households worry whether they will be able to keep up with rising housing costs and the interest payments on loans needed to buy things like houses and cars as they are limited by the benefits from works or from government policies. The fact here is that the rate of housing costs has increased faster than the rate of average wages. The issue has led to anxiety, depression, and loss of self-esteem which have a great potential of leading to alcohol or drug abuse in numerous American households. Also, the most typical example is the rapidly growing population of homeless people which is one of the issues that remains one of the top priorities across the country. Typically in Tacoma, the number of homeless people has skyrocketed due to the lack of affordable housing, low wages, and lack of governmental effective policies which has led to many private-owned abandoned projects. From 2010-2019, the rent rose 40% whereas the median income only rose 25% (“City of Tacoma: Homelessness Strategy 2022-2028”). Americans don't even have a right to a house but their ability to access housing is fundamentally tied to their wealth which decide whether they can pay off loans or pay for rent. In addition, many people need to save money for education, retirement and to pay large out-of-pocket health care costs, which can leave families with high-interest debt hard to recover. Especially in higher education, many college students have been carrying a huge debt while sitting in the lecture hall. Those burden will follow them for years, and create a domino affect on economic activity of each individual and the country.

It is undeniable that those problems are getting worse, but the dream is still there, even by the smallest percentage. If there is only 1% chance of achieving the dream, then the possibility of achieving the American dream will be still hopeful. The freedoms of many people are still there. They still have individual rights, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to form a political party and a lot of other freedoms protected by laws and the US society. Although, discrimination is certainly still somewhere, subtle in this society and very difficult for the government and our public to solve completely, they have always tried to fight against racial, labor and gender discrimination. Although it has been years since the discrimination issue became an international matter and obviously, the US is one of the countries that is still struggling with this social affair, the US Presidents always tried to address the challenges, typically President Biden once said that fighting against discrimination was like a battle for the soul of the US during his speech on the battle for the soul of the nation in Philadelphia. In addition, the US has always been a potential country for the development of education and business opportunities when there are many start-ups springing up every year and there are still millions of jobs created by small businesses.

The government is still trying to maintain the so-called American dream even though the possibility is extremely difficult. The states or cities have introduced policies to gradually improve the problems they are facing. Tacoma, or Seattle in particular, and Washington state in general, are putting homelessness and housing shortages onto their top priorities to improve the economy and people's health in the area. America has been always improving the quality of education. The large investment of the US government in science and technology has given the US an advantage that attracts millions of students around the world to study and work here. The declined education quality and rising costs seem to make many people feel less likely to attend a college or get a job after graduation. Or the US may no longer be the ideal destination for international students like what it once was or compared to Canada, Australia or other European countries. However, this is largely due to the increased competition in university lecture halls with the participation of millions of international students. American Dream is now somewhat still attractive to international students and makes them try everything they have to achieve it.

Conclusion

In a country as diverse as the United States, it is extremely difficult to avoid ethnic conflicts and maintain stability. The US is definitely economically stronger than China and almost all of the countries in the world, but China and countries that have racial homogeneity, have an extremely good social security and stability network. However, again, Freedom, Racial and cultural diversity are what make the breakthrough in many aspects in life such as science, technology, education, and military. They are the foundation for the construction, maintenance, and development of the American Dream. As long as the diversity still exists, the American Dream will still exist. To the most recent political event related to American Dream, many people could argue the existence of American Dream based off Trump view on the exceptional status of the country: “Make America Great Again” slogan which acknowledges the disappearance of American Exceptionalism. However, making America great again is not because it is no longer great or no longer exceptional. It is just not as great as it used to be.

References:

1.Barone, Adam. “What Is the American Dream? Examples and How to Measure It.” Investopedia, 1 Aug. 2022. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/american-dream.asp. Accessed 13 Dec. 2022.

2.“City of Tacoma: Homelessness Strategy 2022-2028.” City of Tacoma, https://www.cityoftacoma.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_6/File/cms/NCS/NCS/Homelessness%20Strategy-v3_footnotes.pdf. Accessed 21 Nov. 2022.