William Portalla

Mr. Pace

Honors Junior English

10/3/22

Is The American Dream Achievable?

The american dream not easy for everyone achieve because there are opportunities for

everyone to at least have a job, but some are left to pay for college and normal fees that hold

them bound to a boring life without a financial pillar from their parents

I believe that the american dream can be achieved by everyone but some people have it

easier. Depending on your american dream the means to achieve it will be different, but a lot of

people can benefit from starting off in wealth. With money most businesses and dreams can be

achieved easier. The American dream is about doing something you love to do, which does not

mean money, but with it you are already on a faster path. “One factor behind America’s

deteriorating upward mobility is the sluggish pace at which wages have grown. For example, the

average hourly wage in 1964, when converted to 2018 dollars, is $20.27. Compare this to

$22.65, the average hourly wage in 2018. That represents a mere 11.7% increase over a span of

54 years.”(weforum.org) Due to a large increase in the cost of living, and goods, but a very slim

increase in wage the average person cannot make enough to support themselves, children, and

others while also having money leftover for their personal goals or fulfilling the so called

american dream. The American dream is also very different from being successful but due to the

circumstances of the world we live in today money is an essential to creating a strong base for

you to produce results from. Although being born with wealth can help no matter what your

financial status is, college will still cost money. The second reason money has changed over
time with the American dream is due to the rise in inflation, “ inflation since January 1998

totaled 58.8%, the costs of health and education services increased by more than 160% over the

same time frame,(weforum.org). The increase in the amount of dollars but not the value in the

dollars has caused many Americans to be underpaid for the work they do which increases the

hours they work and the amount of jobs they work. With all the time the average American

spends working, it's hard for them to finish their goals. Due to inflation and the almost no change

in the amount people get paid it has caused for people to not be able to afford their american

dream.

Another reason income is so hard for people to manage is because of the issues due to

college and school debt. Student debt has left young adults with very little money leftover and

due to that “ the economy has been debated in recent years, as the total has soared to $1.5 trillion,

surpassing Americans’ credit-card and car-loan bills,”(wsj.com). An epidemic of college debt

has taken the U.S. captive by its own hands. The expense of college has just become so huge that

it affects people up to 40 years after school, and in doing so it inhibits them from truly acquiring

their goals due to its nuse like grasp it has on them. Everyone chasing the American dream has

an idea of what they want, or whom they want to marry, or at least that was how it used to be.

Now the American dream can mean anything and that has caused people to obtain beautiful and

intense jobs, but first they “must” go to college. Now college is insanely expensive,

“Homeownership among people ages 24 to 32 fell 9 percentage points, to 36% from 45%,

between 2005 and 2014, the Fed said. While many factors affected the homeowner rate, the Fed

said 2 percentage points, or about a fifth, of the decline was tied directly to student

debt,”(wsj.com). Another example of student debt affecting the lives of everyday Americans by

affecting the ability to buy a house. The drop represents the lack of money people have every
year that goes on due to college debt.

Over the years the american dream has gotten harder for people to achieve because of

Both facts about the average wage being less and college debt being higher than ever cause a

huge plummet together in the succession of children making more money from their parents and

buying a home at a young age which are two essential aspects of life that help people chase their

American dream. Studying the American dream and correlation it has to money has created the

idea that there is a world full of college dropouts and citizens that did not even go to college but

still are successful and living a life they wouldn't regret. It can change the way you think about

your life and the goals you're working for but can also create walls in your head that you may

feel you can't break because you're stuck in a while with financial issues.
 Works cited

News, .css-1i2ud9c-CreditTag{font-weight:400;text-transform:uppercase;}Photo: Daniel

Acker/Bloomberg. “Fed Says Student Debt Has Hurt the U.S. Housing Market.”

The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 17 Jan. 2019,

https://www.wsj.com/articles/fed-says-student-debt-is-u-s-hurting-housing-market-

11547657473.

“Is the American Dream over? Here's What the Data Says.” World Economic Forum,

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/social-mobility-upwards-decline-usa-us-

america-economics/.
 American Dream Essay Rubric

Skill Not Foundational Proficient Advanced

Yet
Identifies a topic Appears in first Thesis establishes a
paragraph complex claim

Thesis establishes a
topic and a claim

Thesis Comments:

Includes two or Includes multiple Includes specific,

fewer sources pieces of evidence meaningful, and
(from 4 sources) well-chosen
Some evidence that clearly relate to evidence that relates
relates to the thesis the thesis to the thesis

Includes multiple
Evidence pieces of evidence in
each body
paragraph

Comments:
 Summarizes sources Explains how Explains
evidence supports well-selected points
topic sentence of of comparison
individual among sources and
paragraphs evidence and their
connection to the
Analysis Explains how thesis
evidence supports
the thesis of the
essay

Comments:

Little connection Explains how the Clearly explains

between texts; texts/sources are relationships among
difficult for the related, though texts (how they
reader to see how points could be confirm or challenge
the texts are related more selective or each other, build on
better developed each other, provide
Synthesis differing
Includes multiple perspectives, etc.)
sources in each body
paragraph

Comments:

Some elements Heading is correctly No errors in MLA

missing or some formatted format
errors in MLA format
Pages are numbered

In-text citations are

correctly formatted

Works Cited format:

hanging indent,
MLA Format double-spaced,
alphabetized, starts
on a new page
 Works Cited: each
source entry is in
correct MLA format
Comments:

Shows evidence of Most quotes are All quotes are

basic proofreading correctly integrated correctly integrated

Follows essay Shows evidence of

Conventions organization careful proofreading

Shows evidence of
proofreading

Comments: