American Dream by James Truslow Essay

The Ameri potbelly conceive of is a depot coined by James Truslow in his 1932 book Epic of America, exclusively it is a concept as old as America itself anything is possible if vaporously the individual is leave behinding to trifle hard. The conceive of d bleaks immigrants to our shores and b aims every year and keeps millions of Americans national in the idea that their toiling will pave the way to winner for them and for their children. However, for every rags-to- wealthiness story, thither be thousands of other hard- giveing wad who can non over publication by, who do non defy enough to eat, transportation, safe housing, or warm change state in winter. thither is much evidence that the American envisage is midget to a greater extent than a myth, a false promise that keeps millions of tribe belonging themselves weary for a better tomorrow that will never come.The American dream is the promise of the Declaration of Independence, which indicates that our inalien subject rights argon purport, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. There is no single American dream, still Adams defines the concept in its nigh dignified sense It is the dream of a convey in which life should be better and richer and totaler for every unrivaled, with opportunity for each according to top executive or getmenta dream of a accessible order in which each man and each woman sh all told be able to attain to the fullest stature of which that argon innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they atomic number 18, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position. (qtd. In Ferenz) The tempt of America for immigrants and the promise to its citizens is that, as Adams indicates, the individual is not held back by circumstances, but through individual efforts can pursue and attain whatsoever personal brand of happiness he or she desires.In the midst of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt recognized the part the federal government n eeded to scat in keeping the American dream alive-no longer was hard work the only itemor involved in ensuring an acceptable give birthard of living. to a lower place his administration, a number of social programs were put into place to help Americans achieve the dream, which Roosevelt described as sufficiency of life, rather thana p allowhora of riches and good wellness, good intellectual nourishment, good education, good working conditions (qtd. In Muir). owe to these principles, Roosevelts New adopt include the Social Security Act, comme il faut Labor Standards Act that banned child labor and established a borderline occupy, and a variety of programs that put Americans to work in urbane service (Successes 4-6). Roosevelts programs and instauration warfare II helped drag the nation out of the Great Depression, but were not permanent solutions in making the American dream possible for all Americans.By the 1960s, one in five Americans were living in leanness, and in hi s first State of the pith address in 1964, Lyndon Johnson decl atomic number 18d, an unconditional war on uglyness in America. (qtd. In Quindlen 1) Johnson, likewise, understood that the American dream was one not get-at-able through hard work alone. As Anna Quindlen, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, notes in her 2004 editorial, from Johnsons firmness of purpose a force of government initiatives sprang, including Head Start, an expended solid food-stamp program, and sweeping reforms in health dole out for the needy (Quindlen 2).Unfortunately, in spite of the attempts of Roosevelt, Johnson, and others to lend a arrive at to those Americans who need it most, the feeling that the measly are responsible for their own troubles evermore seems to creep its way back into the American mind. Weve all heard the rumors that the poor are trifling, that welfare is equitable n excuse not to get a mull. Quindlen comments that part of the problem with a war on poverty today is th at many Americans nominate decided that being poor is a character defect, not an economic condition (Quindlen 2).Public policy of the outlive few decades seems to follow this line of thinking the Federal minimum plight has not risen since 1997 point as welfare reform movements select forced millions of tidy sum, many single parents, off universe assistance and into minimum lucre jobs. Quindlen argues that forty years after Johnson led the charge, the battle against poverty still rages. The biggest differences today if that there is no call to arms by those in power (Quindlen 1). How does this shift in American policy relate the status of the American dream? Can we still call ourselves the land of opportunity when the American dream eludes so many of our citizens? Should the American dream exist and is it genuinelyly worth it to try and live by the dream?In July 2000, Mortimer Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of U.S. intelligence operation and World Report, wrote an rise activ e the success of the American dream. Zuckerman claims that it is a dream on individual effort-talent, ambition, risk-taking, readiness to change, and just plain hard work-qualities that count more in America than social undercoat of luck (Zuckerman 120). That is a perspective that Zuckerman, a billionaire whose biography on the U.S. News and World Report website boasts he has substantial real-estate holdings, including properties in Boston, New York, Washington, and San Francisco can afford to have. The reality for most Americans, however, is not nearly so great. It is a reality where social background and luck play far too large a part in achieving the American dream.Two articles written a decade apart demo that bitter reality. In ground forces Today in 1996, Charles Whalen writes that beneath the misleading surface prosperity of the 1990s are numerous alarming trends, among them relentless downsizing, longer job searches and sluggish job creation, explosive growth in contingen t work (part-time and temporary employment), and engross stagnation (Whalen 2-3). One would be hard=pressed to find a list that better demonstrates the part luck plays in securing steady employment. Whalen overly cites a look back, ironically conducted for U.S. News and World Report, that indicates 57% of those asked express that the American dream is out of finish off for most families (qtd. in Whalen 2).In 2006 in the Chicago Sun-Times, Clyde Murphy cites a new report released by the probability Agenda that measures the nations progress in living up to the American dream. The findings? That millions of Americans do not have a fair aspect to achieve their full potential, despite their best efforts (Murphy 33). Two of the reasons cited by the topic are housing discrimination against blacks, Hispanics, and Asians are employment discrimination against women and minorities, which included favoring job candidates with white-sounding names. These findings clearly refute Zuckerman s claim, demonstrating that background does in detail count more in America than individual effort when it comes to achieving trus dickensrthy aspects of the American dream.Another dubious claim in Zuckermans essay is that anybody who wishes to work has the opportunity to move from the bottom of the ladder to a conservative measure of life, or higher (Zuckerman 120). As award-winning journalist Barbara Ehrenreich notes in her book plate and Dimed On (Not) Getting By in America, the grandiosity surrounding welfare reform assumed that a job was the tatter out of poverty and that the only thing holding back welfare recipients was their reluctance to get out and get one (Ehrenreich 196). As a wealth of evidence suggests, this is the fundamental misperception surrounding the American dream.In her 2003 editorial A New Kind of Poverty, Anna Quindlen argues America is a country that in a flash sits atop a precarious latticework of myth. It is the myth that working people can support their families (Quindlen 2). Quindlen interviews two women who run services for the homeless and destitute in New York City, ant they note that more often they are seeing working families in dire need of their help. Indeed, according to the U.S. census Bureaus 2005 report on poverty, Americas poverty rate has been climbing, from 11.3 percent in 2000 to 12.7 percent in 2004, the latest for which info is available. This translates into 37 million people who live below the poverty line. This is bring forward complicated, however, by the way that the nosecount Bureau calculates the poverty take aim. Barbara Ehrenreich explains that it is still metrical by the archaic method of taking the bare-bones cost of food for a family of a given size and multiplying that number by three.Yet food is relatively inflation-proof (Ehrenreich 200). This method results in a base calculation of $9,310 for one person, with $3,180 added for each additional person in the household. As anyone who has ev er lived on his or her own understands, those poverty calculations are very low. Ehrenreich points out that the economic Policy Institute recently reviewed dozens of studies of what constitutes a living wage and came up with an average figure of $30,000 for a family of one adult and two children (Ehrenreich 213). When compared to the federal poverty calculation of $15,670, the chap becomes glaringly apparent. Anna Quindlen explains when you adjust the level to reflect reality, you come closer to 35 percent of all Americans who are having a hard time providing the basics for their families (Quindlen 2).As pioneering psychologist Abraham Maslows look into reveals, psychological and safety needs-the basics referred to by Quindlen, such as food and housing-must be fulfilled before other needs, core components of the American dream such as belongingness and self-esteem, can be met (Abraham 2). This creates a basic gap between those who can reach for the American dream and those who ca nnot if all somebodys energy is focused on providing food and shelter, there is zip fastener left to reach for higher goals. In a 2002 essay Whats So Great About America? Dinesh DSouza, an Indian immigrant, makes assertions that demonstrate some common misconceptions about Americans meeting our basic needs.The United States is a country where the ordinary guy has a good life, (DSouza 23). He level off goes so far to say that very few people in America have to wonder where their next meal is coming from (DSouza 23). Sadly, this is not honest. Quindlen indicates the U.S. Department of Agriculture notes that 1.6 million New Yorkerssuffer from food insecurity, which is just a fancy way of saying they do not have to enough to eat (Quindlen 1). Ehrenreich reports that according to a survey conducted by the U.S. conference of Mayors, 67 percent of the adults requesting emergency food aid are people with jobs (Ehrenreich 219).Two other basic needs, safe housing and health economic aid, are also beyond the reach of many Americans. When the rich and the poor cope for housing on the open market, writes Ehrenreich, the poor dont stand a chance. The rich can always outbid them, buy up their tenements and trailer parks, and replace them withwhatever they like (Ehrenreich 199). This is exaggerated by the fact that expenditures on public housing have fallen since the 1980s, and the expansion of public rental subsidies came to a halt in the 1990s (Ehrenreich 201). Health care is another sad story. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Americans with no health insurance has been slowly rising, arriving at 15.7 percent in 2004, and as Quindlen observes, poor kids are much more likely to become sick than their counterparts, but much less likely to have health insurance. Talk about a double whammy (Quindlen 1). How can families dream big and send off for the future as they worry about whether the next calendar month will bring eviction or illness?Two people in particular have put a human face on the statistical evidence that the American dream remains out of reach for millions of hard-working Americans. At the urging of her editor at Harpers magazine, Barbara Ehrenreich undertook a yearlong undercover investigation of living on low-wage jobs in Florida, Maine, and Minnesota. She waited tables, worked as a maid, and worked at Wal-Mart, never revealing her statue as a reported, but keeping careful private diaries documenting the details of her experience.In spite of working at least full-time, usually more, she was unable to get by. The most life-threatening part of her journey, however, was the people she met, women who were not just experimenting with the low-wage life, but who were trapped by it. They were women who were victims of the affordable housing shortage, who lived in cars, or if they were lucky, weekly rental motel rooms. They walked, rode bikes, or bummed rides to work. Certainly among those who experience food insecurity, th ey skipped meals or ate nutritionally vacuous foods like hot dog buns because they couldnt afford to eat. They were women with raw hands and sore backs, balancing two or more jobs who would never, in spite of their work ethic, move off that bottom rung of the social ladder.In a similar experiment, Morgan Spurlock (of Super Size Me fame) and his fiance lived on minimum wage for thirty geezerhood in Columbus, Ohio and recorded the results for the premiere episode of his television series 30 Days. As Spurlock works eighteen-hour days making at least $7.50 per hour and Alex works for minimum wage at a coffee house, the pair is faced with a host of challenges that mirror the everyday trials of the working poor. Emergency room visits for a urinary tract infection and a sprained wrist cost them $1,217. DSouza properly comments that in America, even sick people who dont have money or insurance will receive medical care at hospital emergency rooms (DSouza 23), but he fails to take into ac count that suck care generates bills are equivalent to six weeks of full time minimum wage work.The most affordable housing they could find, a steal at $325 per month, has ant infestations, malfunctioning heat, and is upstairs from an apartment that was a crack house just the week before. Furthermore, their relationship is strained by the stress that results from the constant worrying about money. At the end of the month they find themselves hundreds of dollars in the hole, by permanently changed by their experience. When taken together, the accounts of Ehrenreich and Spurlock spell powerful in respiret into the everyday struggles of the working poor, those who are anything but lazy but still find themselves drowning financially, the American dream slipping yet away all the time.Dinesh DSouza claims that in America your destiny is not prescribed. Your life is like a blank sheet of paper and you are the artist (DSouza 24). It is difficult to believe, however, that the millions of w orking poor are not assay to create a better destiny for themselves, only to find their dreams let down by the harsh realities of daily life. So why is the American dream still suck a pervasive part of our consciousness, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that hard work is not the ticket to prosperity, or even necessarily to a comfortable standard of living?In his Critique of Hegels Philosophy of the Right, Karl Marx wrote that theology is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of the heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for the real happiness (qtd in Cline). Marxs clever card is that religion, in keeping the focus on the afterlife, keeps people from demanding fair give-and-take in this world. DSouza suggests, however, that capitalism gives America a this-worldly focus that allows termination and the afterlife to recede from everyday viewthe gaze of the people is shifted to profane progress (DSouza 25).If this the case, why is it that we are not more aware of (and raging about) the decided lack of earthly progress of so many of our friends and neighbors? whatever believe that it is because the American dream has taken the place of religion as todays opiate of the masses. So long as we all believe that there is a better life ahead, that is we only work harder, our dreams are within reach, it is easy to be lulled into satisfaction about the variety that is so common in America today. Barbara Ehrenreich predicts that someday the working poor are bound to tire of getting so little in return for their labor and to demand to be paid what theyre worth (Ehrenreich 221). Some challenge, echoing Marx, that Ehrenreichs predication will not come true until the American dream, the illusory happiness of the people, is abolished in favor of a more realistic world view that recognizes that more than hard work, a l ot hand is needed to make America truly the land of opportunity.From the survey that I took in class, 14 out of 20 people were surveyed and said that they to, disagree that the American dream should exist. They believe as well that there should be a more realistic view in fellowship that allows you to get what you work for. Of the people that did agree, most were people between the ages of 18 and 21, people who have not yet, most likely gotten out into the real world to experience what type of life they can actually work for. If you too, disagree with the American dream, I ask you to go to this website http//www.thepetitionsite.com/3/the-american-dream-is-not-for-rent , subscribe to the petition, and keep working hard at what you doWork CitedAbraham Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. Shippensberg University Website. Sept. 2005 2-3. Web. 16 June 2009.Cline, Austin. Karl Marx on Religion. About.com. 5 Apr. 2006 n.pag. Web. 16 June 2009.DSouza, Dinesh. Whats So Great About America? The Amer ican Enterprise. May 2002 22-25. Print.Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting By in America. New York Owl Books. 2002 20-38. Print.Ferenz, Kathleen. What is the American Dream? San Francisco State University Online Web Site. 31 Mar. 2005 n.pag. Web. 16 June 2009. Muir, Ed. Narrowing the thoroughfare to the American Dream. American Teacher. Oct. 2004 25. Print.Murphy, Clyde. When Opportunity Knocks, It Skips Over Some Adresses. Chicago Sun-Times. 14 Feb. 2006 33. Web. 16 June 2009.Quindlen, Anna. A New Kind of Poverty. Newsweek. 1 Dec. 2003 1-2. Web. 16 June 2009.Quindlen, Anna. The War We Havent Won. Newsweek. 20 Sep. 2004 1-2. Web.16 June 2009.Successes and Failures of Roosevelts New Deal Programs. Bergen County Technical Schools and Special Services Web Site. 10 Mar. 2006 4-6. 16 June 2009.U.S Census Bureau. 2005 Poverty Press Release. 30 Aug. 2005 n.pag. 16 June 2009. Whalen, Charles J. The Age of Anxiety eroding of the American Dream. USA Today. Sep. 1996 1-3. Web. 16 June 2009.Zuckerman, Mortimer. A Time to Celebrate. U.S. News and World Report. 17 Jul. 2000 120. Print.