The myth of the American Dream
For generations, the American Dream has been ingrained in many Americans’ ideologies. From politics to education, it is hidden deep within the narrative of America’s origin. It pervades many aspects of everyday life. This concept that everyone, rich or poor, can achieve their dreams through hard work and determination.
However, as income inequality rises and the middle class shrinks, the American Dream becomes more difficult to achieve. A comfortable, luxurious lifestyle is the American Dream’s objective. In contrast, social norms, alienation, and the classist nature of capitalism render it unsatisfying, unappealing, restraining, and lonely. The American Dream is realistically unattainable on the basis of hard work alone. There are several factors that influence where someone ends up on the socioeconomic pyramid. Still, the American dream as an ideal and a beacon lives on.
Ideology rooted in the country’s history
Throughout the country’s 300-year history, the American Dream has always been about raising one person above another. Beginning with the theft of American Indian territories, the founding fathers continued to push them further and further away. It was advantageous to them at the time. They decided that the land was nice and needed by the white man. They pushed Indigenous folks even further away. Then, they began taking Africans and enslaving them on plantations to build upon the stolen land. Americans began to make more and more money.
The foundation of the American dream is deeply rooted in the declaration of independence that assert that “all men are created equal.”How could in one breath the nation’s founders believe all men were created equal with the right to pursue liberty, while they believed it was all right to hold, sell, rape, breed and work enslaved men and women of African descent against their wills in the next breath?
In his 1850 Independence Day speech, Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist and former slave, invoked the Declaration’s principles to excoriate America for the hypocrisy of its founding.
“The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me.”(Lowance 40)
The United States and its settlers claimed its independence from Great Britain, this came at a cost of others, including this land’s Indigenous Peoples and Africans that were stolen from their own homelands and forced into slavery. Even the country’s history proves that the people who worked hard to create the land which we stand on, were robbed of their American Dream and suffered greatly at the hands of those in power.
It’s never been about hard work
The American Dream is a capitalist cultural narrative which can be summarized as a promise from the nation to each individual that if they contribute to society and work hard, they can become wealthy. It is a well-known anecdote. The tale of a successful businessman who poses in front of his cars or mansions and is admired for his wealth and hard work. While the working-class man, who may be living in a region of the country hampered by unemployment, economic crisis, and facing the loss of his home, is chastised for not working hard enough or for failing to provide for his family.
One of the most common misconceptions is that we live in a country where everyone is treated equally. As a result, everyone gets what they deserve. You will be rewarded for your hard work. Therefore, the socioeconomically disadvantaged must be lazy and unmotivated and get what they deserve. However, Wages are not based on productivity, but rather power.
Capitalism depends on the American Dream
America as a capitalistic society depends on the American Dream and the hard workers who believe in it. Working-class belief in the American Dream is extremely beneficial to the billionaire class, whose fortunes are generally generational and not earned in the traditional sense. Many working-class people believe that they are only temporarily at the bottom and that they will eventually rise to the top.
The sad reality is that most Americans do not advance beyond the economic class into which they were born. The wealthiest members of society keep an absurd amount of money locked up in stock markets and offshore accounts, only increasing wealth for those who already have it and not explicitly for those who have worked hard for it. The American Dream was only ever a marketing scheme; a bit of truth, a bit of hope, and then an open hand for you to slip in some bills to pay into their scheme with the anticipation of getting a return on your taxation.
“That’s what America is all about, right?”
James Truslow Adams once said, “If you work hard and play by the rules, you should be given a chance to go as far as your God-given ability will take you.” This simple but influential message has led many people to pursue the American dream. If you work hard, you can achieve success and prosperity for yourself and your family, this is the land of opportunity! That’s what America is all about, right? If the dream is about working hard to get what a person needs, then almost everyone I know should have a part of the dream.
The issue is that the United States is not a meritocratic society that solely values hard work and perseverance, but rather one that emphasizes class, identity, family stability, genetics, social capital, education, and many more are key to determining success. Some people work two jobs simply to make ends meet. Some millennials are unable to purchase a home because they are repaying college loans. There are students starting college who would be better off working for a few years but are afraid they won’t be able to find work without a college degree. Some people continue to work in poor conditions because they do not want to lose their health-care coverage.
People work hard, and do not end up with the material results the dream told them they should expect. But instead, end up with no family life. No friends. Unable to meet other people because they’re always working. Never taking a vacation.
The stories we don’t tell
There are still opportunities, and you generally do have to work hard. However, virtually all of America’s success stories give an inaccurate picture of the role of luck. For every “self-made” successful person, there are easily another twenty or thirty people who worked just as hard, handled things just as intelligently, were just as prudent, just as aggressive, and just as quick to seize every opportunity — but lacked some connection, some unexpected opportunity, some economic vagaries, that allowed the successful one to become successful, and doomed the unsuccessful one to obscurity and overall failure. But we don’t tell those stories. They’re depressing.
The criticism that reality falls short of the American dream is at least as old as the idea itself. From the expansion of settlers into Native American lands, slavery, capitalism, and a long list of other injustices and challenges have undermined the realization of the dream for many people living in America. With a little hard work, perseverance, and determination, people should not be afraid to fail, and should make opportunities for themselves. Yet the economic mobility that should come from such hard work and drive seems a myth. Myths that defy the common experience can persist for only so long.
Perhaps in the future the country will do more to promote the opportunities it believes it already offers. Or perhaps the culture will simply come to accept this un-American reality: a society of rigid economic orders, sustained by inheritance, damned by its upper class, and helplessly endured by its lower class.
References
Adams, J. T. (2017). The epic of America. Taylor and Francis.
Lowance, M. I. (Ed.). (2000). What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? (1852). In Against slavery: An abolitionist reader (pp. 35–45). Penguin Books.
About Blessed Kusi
Blessed Kusi is a Nursing Major at St. John Fisher College. In her spare time, she creates art for the Angels magazine, a local arts publication. Her greatest passion is personal growth. Constantly challenging herself, Blessed loves to learn new things, and broaden her worldview with an open mind. She is fascinated by how different people interpret things differently, such as language interpretations, cultures, and even our brains.
