Everyone who has grandparents in their lives knows how different times were when they were young adults with dreams like us. Many of these dreams are similar to ours: Get a compelling job, have a place of our own one day, and adopt a dog to keep us company. For many of us, these are similar dreams we have to our parents, and we may even see them as role models whose lives we would like to imitate. But over the years, it seems like the typical American Dream has changed, and even more so if you continue to look back at how things were for the previous generations. Everyone has different dreams and aspirations now, and many of us also see them as relatively unachievable. Maybe what we think our American Dream is really just that: a dream.
So what has made it so difficult for people to achieve these dreams, and why have they changed so much in the first place?
When you were a child, did you dream of having fame and wealth? Most people think of being famous to some degree, and many of us still would hope to accumulate wealth. Face it, it would be amazing to win the lottery. But our goals have changed as we’ve gotten older and have to think about what we hope to achieve one day. We want stability, relationships, children or pets, and money to support ourselves. We want personal growth. When you go online, you’re faced with the negativity about the growing inequality in the world and the capability of our own government to support us and help us reach these dreams. Growing as a person is achievable without money, but when you grow you realize how much could soon be out of your reach because of everything working against you.
People don’t put their hope and belief in their government and the people representing them nearly as much as they did in the 1940s, because they’ve been failed too many times.
An article from Stanford titled “The Fading American Dream” from almost ten years ago explains how children today face the challenge of being as well off, or better, than their parents. One of the defining characteristics of the American Dream is that the next generation should have a higher standard of living than the current one, and the 2016 article recognized that this was no longer the case because of the growing inequality and staggering economic challenges (Wong, M., 2016). Inflation, income, the job market, and the growing difference in the rich and the poor make it hard to achieve dreams, and even harder for the generation after us. The people who are most likely to achieve the typical American Dream have already achieved it three times over because the rich are getting richer and the middle class is dissolving.
The American Dream, according to a 1931 book called The Epic of America by James Truslow Adams, is that no matter who you were, you could come to America and find opportunity and a rich life both better and fuller for everyone. A quote I find increasingly more ironic as we continue to face this prevalent issue is from well-known celebrity Kim Kardashian on business advice, who said, “Get your f***ing a** up and work.” Obviously, people weren’t too happy with this demand. Even in a society that claims to herald perseverance and hard work we can recognize that the people in power don’t always have to work hard and persevere.
People are no longer satisfied facing hardships in order to make money and survive when the gap continues to grow between classes. To live comfortably, you now need much more money than before, and people recognize that this trend seems unlikely to end.
A 2023 article on the current state of the American Dream took note of the fact that only 19% of voters who took part in a Wall Street Journal poll felt confident that their children’s future is better than their own, and only 36% of voters believed that if you work hard, you’ll get ahead. These people share the same bleak sentiment of current social media users and other people I’ve talked to in real life.
If the American Dream ever really existed at all, it was only ever going to work for a small amount of people. Where do we go from here?
I believe the American Dream will change, as some of our aspirations have. But as this will inevitably change, I also recognize that there needs to be ample change in the wealth inequality issue to allow for comfortable living and overall happiness unless we want our dreams to remain dreams with no chance of becoming a reality.