The real "American dream" is living the life you're given, and pleasing your life needs whether it puts you in debt or not. However, the ideal perception of the "American dream" is equality among Americans, rich or poor, with equalized opportunities for ourselves and our children, and even our children's children. Sadly, this is not so; Americans' opportunities are as unequal as their wealth. In the first article, it is described that both rich Americans and poor Americans thought that wealth was divided or distributed about evenly among all Americans. However, it was proven that rich and people own more than 80% of America's wealth, and thus poor people are not very equalized in seizing opportunity.
I think that the perceptions of the real vs. the ideal "American dream" are different because of the fact, as mentioned in one of the articles, that people make up for their lack of wealth with increased debt. They spend money they don't have in order to make themselves feel like they have net worth, and thus owe more money and decrease their net worth. These people are imagining that they have it just as good as wealthy people, when in fact they do not, and they are making it harder for their coming generations to recieve opportunities. Wealthy people feel that poor people have it just as good as them because they pay higher taxes, not realizing that they are not necessarily paying for poorer people to live. This is almost a selfish assumption, in my opinion. Either way, both sides feel that they are equal and yet it is far from true. It is crucial to be aware of the fact that social class, not specifically race but actually your status financially, is directly correlated with opportunity and finding your American dream.
I agree that not being treated as equals amung our society is a crucial reason why the "American Dream" is so difficult to come by these days. Even when we signed the Declaration of Independence, there were people who were seen as inferior to us, which is so sad. I also find it so frustrating that people think that by obtaining these material objects it will make them feel happy. Initially it might, but when they get their credit card bill and see that they are in harsh debt the material object is not as fufilliing as it was in the beginning. If people would save instead of spend it might solve a lot of problems :).
ReplyDeleteHaha maybe the problem is who they chose to read and sign or maybe who they chose to write the Declaration of Independence... maybe those people did not consider the fact that they were instigating inequality for the future of the United States. My mom knows first hand about large debt because she thought that was a way to make up for being worse off than her parents are. She eventually found that with spending less money she felt like she had more stuff because she didnt always have to throw stuff away due to clutter and spend more money to replace what she tossed out. Sometimes it just takes a little wake up call for people to get themselves out of a bad situation that they have put themselves into, and the United States of America as a whole needs to have that wake up call.
ReplyDeleteFor people who believe in the American dream, anything is attainable through hard work. The concept plays on the idea that American is a classless society, although it is obviously not, as any honest examination of the United States will reveal. The idealistic vision of the American Dream also assumes that people are not discriminated against on the basis of race, religion, gender, and national origin, another thing which is unfortunately not true in the United States.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Some one who manages to achieve his or her version of the American Dream may be said to be “living the dream,” and everyone has a unique interpretation of what the American Dream might be. Fundamentally, the American Dream is about hope and the potential for change, and one could argue that people who enact change in some way, even a small way, are living the dream.