Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Odalis Cortes Chona - Tuesday September 28 2021
Odalis Cortes Chona - Tuesday September 28 2021
Odalis Cortes Chona - Tuesday September 28 2021
that their goals are attainable through perseverance and hardwork despite their
economic stature or the place where they were born. However, this belief has idealistic
flaws that do not hold up to it’s expectations for it’s people. They are taught to seek
prosperity in consumption or in other words, purchasing things with money they don’t
have, on things they don’t need to live a good life. In reality American values have been
coarxed into materialistic principles where the system is controlled by people with more
power and wealth to confine commoners with lower income into a place in society
where they will always remain poor and the wealthy will always remain wealthy.
Americans throughout generations have started to realize that the current state of the
American Dream is a fallacy that has been put in place to keep them at a disadvantage.
Today”, the article states that the American Dream was a notion to appeal to people
coming into the country but was later turned into an official phrase that enticed one of a
good life in the 1930’s. Later the definition changed in the 1950’s when it became more
worldly and the G.I bill was passed, alternating the American ideals into consumerist
ones. Furthermore The American Dream Downpayment Assistance act was signed by
Advertisements started cropping up that utilized the American Dream as a selling point.
Real estate advertising especially hammered home the point that the American Dream
had something to do with material wealth and owning a place of your own” (Hendricks).
Now, more than ever we can see the effect this materialistic mentality given by people in
In the article “The Economy is Changing and so is the American Dream” the
author unravels the truth behind why millennials are the largest generation to give into
entrepreneurship. The author suggests that the two-thirds of millennials’ desire to work
for themselves in place of working for larger companies, derives from the understanding
that by working for themselves they find a more unconstrained path to their success.”In
the face of these benefits and high levels of public support, policymakers often fail to
realize that this 21st century economy cannot flourish under a 20th century regulatory
structure . Business owners and consumers alike are frustrated with bureaucrats’
that could not have been imagined when these laws were written” (Meyer). All the same
they’ve stopped defining their success as obtaining material items but in terms of
introducing cheaper and more accessible commodities for consumers and still live a
liberaterian lifestyle, while still pursuing a passion. The newfound generations have
According to the data shown in “Mr. Smiths Junior English class of the 2021-2022
school year ”, 13.6% of the students do not feel confident in their ability to plan for the
future, 15.2% of students believe that making money is more important than being
satisfied with the work they do, 12.1% of students are neutral about hardwork paying off
to achieve their dreams, 26.8% disagree or strongly disagree that the American Dream
is achievable for everyone, 93.2% of the students included owning a home as a part of
their American dream, 88.6% involved owning a car, 86.4% considered the cost of
living, and 86.4% considered career opportunities. This is just one of the local
occurrences that has been brought to our attention, showing how people of all different
accords are influenced by material items that are needed to make them happy, while
knowing that some are not able to meet those expectations if they are not born into a
family that has more generations of knowledge on how to handle those societal
pressures.
Ultimately, we as a nation have failed to realize that the American dream is after
Churchwell, Sarah. “A Brief History of the American Dream: Bush Center.” A Brief History of
the American Dream | Bush Center, The Catalyst, 2021,
https://www.bushcenter.org/catalyst/state-of-the-american-dream/churchwell-history-of-the-amer
ican-dream.html.
Wolfe, Tom. “Tom Wolfe Reflects on the American Idea.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media
Company, 15 May 2018,
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/11/pell-mell/306312/.
Hoffower, Hillary. “People of All Ages Define the American Dream the Same Way - but
Millennials Take It One Step Further.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 19 July 2018,
https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-baby-boomers-gen-x-define-the-american-dream-2
018-7.
VanSommeran, Lindsay. “What Is the American Dream Today?” The Qube Money Blog, 19 July
2021, https://blog.qubemoney.com/what-is-the-american-dream-today.