The American Dream is generally regarded as a set of privileges that an individual living in the U.S. would have access to freedoms providing him or her with the chance to become prosperous and to be happy in general. The basic idea of the American Dream started as a result of people acknowledging that as long as an individual was free, he or she could achieve his or her goals as long as he or she is willing to work in order for them in a relatively short period of time. Even with the fact that the U.S. is presently one of the most developed countries and that American cities have access to a wide range of privileges, the American Dream has become less accessible during recent years.
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The American Dream is generally regarded as a set of privileges that an individual living in the U.S. would have access to freedoms providing him or her with the chance to become prosperous and to be happy in general. The basic idea of the American Dream started as a result of people acknowledging that as long as an individual was free, he or she could achieve his or her goals as long as he or she is willing to work in order for them in a relatively short period of time. Even with the fact that the U.S. is presently one of the most developed countries and that American cities have access to a wide range of privileges, the American Dream has become less accessible during recent years.
The American Dream has gradually come to be one of the most divisive ideas ever to have existed, taking into account its complex nature and the fact that most people have trouble providing a strict definition when concerning it. A simple Google search concerning the American Dream generates results that are focused more on anecdotes rather than on cases in which the American Dream was accomplished or in which people promote a strategies through which one can achieve the dream.
As society progresses it seems that more and more Americans are unlikely to ever achieve the American dream. "Critics see the American Dream as a clever political and economic marketing strategy. They want people to get away from selfish individualism and materialism, and to return to community spirit and social responsibility" (The American Dream then and now). The fact that there is an immense gap between the rich and the poor in the U.S. further contributes to this belief. Class division plays an important role in keeping many from achieving the American Dream.
2. Social class is an essential factor in determining particular individuals' opportunity to achieve the American Dream. While being born in a privileged environment provides a person with the chance to have little to no problems achieving the dream, being born in a blue-collar environment is probable to make it especially difficult for an individual to be prosperous. Individuals belonging to the lower classes tend to believe that the American Dream does not actually exist and that they are generally meant to stand by and watch as the upper classes do whatever they please.
There is a significant gap between ideals and reality and the American Dream has been, is, and is always going to be an ideal. It would be impossible for it to be widely accessible, as this would entail a society that would generally accept the idea of equality and individuals that would not guide themselves in accordance with capitalist principles. Selfishness is a key concept in the contemporary society and it is impossible for certain individuals to refrain from being selfish.
A great deal of individuals in the middle class has been forced to lose hope in ever attaining the American Dream during recent years. "For those at the bottom, however, the end result may be the loss of hope itself, and the abandonment of belief in any version of the American Dream" (American dream dying: the changing economic lot of the least advantaged xiv).
3. Although just like most persons I like to think that the American Dream is actually possible and that society will, one day, be supportive concerning this concept, the reality is that it is very difficult to attain the dream in the contemporary society. Materialism plays an essential role in the world today as more and more individuals come to be obsessed with increasing their profits through every means possible. This means that morality has become a concept that most people prefer to ignore as they employ perfectly legal attitudes in exploiting others and in trying to take advantage of every opportunity they have with no regard to the harm that they cause.
Intergenerational progress is a key idea concerning the American Dream: "each generation stands on the shoulders of the preceding one, and improvement in health, income, and well-being is assured through education and hard work" (Grogger & Trejo iii). Or at least this is true in theory. The reality is that the American Dream is real only when regarding matters from a certain perspective. Although many experience progress solely based on their merits, it would be absurd to say that the majority of individuals has the chance to prosper as a result of their efforts.
In spite of the fact that society has experienced much progress during recent years and civilization is slowly but surely spreading in some of the darkest corners, people still have problems understanding and supporting the idea of equality. Many refrain from assisting others because they believe that they are going to lose by doing so. Capitalism in particular promotes the idea that every man needs to fight for himself and that competition is one of the most important things in the history of mankind.
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