Elliott 1

Ronnie Elliott

Ms. Anderson

English II Honors

12 February 2024

The American Dream in terms of success and wealth

When it comes to dreams, many people find themselves having one. Some chase the

dream of opening a business or inventing. Others have smaller dreams, such as attending school

and graduating. With all of this in mind, most Americans have one dream they want to achieve

the most. That is the American Dream. In terms of wealth and success, one can identify the

American Dream as being able to afford a high and reliable education, resulting in a high-paying

job, where one can constantly afford material items. However, being born into success or wealth

strengthens one's chance of achieving that dream. Many Americans cannot achieve this dream

due to economic instability and inequality.

When it comes to the American Dream, most people don’t understand how big the price

tag is. Many have concluded that the American Dream is mainly materialistic and derives from

what one can own. In the text, “What Really is the American Dream?” by Alexander Bruno, he

states: “…The dream generally finds itself manifested in material or capital gains and/or

achievements.” (Bruno 5). Capital gains can be perceived as having money or having material

items. Due to this, many people want to be able to own material items. These items are things

such as houses, cars, designer brands, and anything with high value. People want to be seen as

well off and they can buy things that many cannot. Homeownership is mostly known as being a

predominant part of the American Dream. According to “Homeownership and the American
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Dream” by Laurie S. Goodman and Christopher Mayer, they state: “For decades, it was taken as

a given that an increased homeownership rate was a desirable goal.” (Goodman and Mayer 1).

Owning a house proves that one can amount to something greater than most Americans since

buying a house is a big expense for most. Along with that, others conclude that along with the

materialistic view; it’s also what one can build, such as growing a family. That can be seen as an

achievement for some. Many Americans don’t understand how expensive this so-called “dream”

is, and how many Americans cannot afford this, especially in recent years. According to the text

“The ‘American Dream’ costs far more than most people will earn over their lifetime” by Amiee

Picchi, she states, “The ‘American Dream’ costs about 3.4 million to achieve over the course of a

lifetime, from getting married to saving for retirement…” (Picchi). Following this quote, she

states, "Meanwhile, median lifetime earnings for the typical U.S. worker is at $1.7 million…”

(Picchi). The difference between 3.4 and 1.7 equates to a fair amount of 2. This difference means

that Americans will only make up to about a respectable third of what the American Dream is

worth.

Economics is an essential part of life and the state of it has been getting worse as the

years go on. According to “Perspectives on Inequality and Opportunity from the Survey of

Consumer Finances” by Janet L. Yellen states: “During the past several decades, the United

States has experienced its most sustained rise in inequality since the nineteenth century. The U.S.

distribution of income and wealth is now wider than in most other advanced countries.” (Yellen

1). Most theories as to why this economic instability and inequality was happening were wars

that went on in past American history—specifically, the Vietnam War and World War 2. When

the Vietnam War and World War 2 both commenced, a lot of baby boomers' sustained living

amounts increased significantly. This was due to one, the amount of money used to fund the
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wars, and two, the number of houses, cars, agriculture, and more aspects of America that were

destroyed by those wars. Uncle Sam then came into play, where he often gave loans to those in

need. Hence, the domino effect permanently affected the “economic ladder” causing both

economic instability and economic inequality. Economic instability can best be described as the

rise of inflation and the constant change of employment. Economic instability can eventually fall

into a deeper rabbit hole of economic inequality. To follow this claim, according to the text

“Economic and Social Inequality” written by Simon Marginson states: “Income inequality is the

aggression of inequality of income…” (Marginson 2). The aggression can show how bad

economic inequality is when it comes to achieving the American Dream. When it comes to who

suffers the worst from this inequality, most politicians have come to the consensus that minorities

are usually at risk of economic inequality due to them not being able to climb up the “economic

ladder.” That economic ladder could be in terms of achieving the American Dream. According to

the text “Economic and Social Inequality” by Simon Marginson states: “American earned

income are now more unequal than apartheid South Africa, or colonial India, or the slave-owning

Southern before the Civil War.” (Marginson 2). Putting those quotes together, one can most

likely conclude that America has an issue with economic inequality. The same economic

inequality that is happening in America plays a role in education and getting jobs later on in an

average American’s life.

Everyone requires an education. But most Americans and anyone in general understand

how expensive college can be, so they plan for the expenses early on. However, college can turn

out to be a bigger expense to different demographics around America because of economic

inequality. A prime example is the “rich” demographic and the “poor” demographic. According

to the text “The End of the American Dream Inequality and Segregation in the US Cities” by
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Alessandra Fogli and Veronica Guerrieri, they state for the “rich” demographic: “…but richer

parents can spend more on their children’s education. the result is that often richer

neighborhoods tend to be neighborhoods where schools are better, kids have more extracurricular

opportunities, social norms are more conducive to academic success and social networks are

more cohesive.” (Fogli and Guerrieri). Later on, it talks about the “poorer” demographic where it

states: “…Poorer families will often have no choice but to live in poorer neighborhoods that do

not offer the same opportunities for their children, reducing the hope for their children to climb

up the scale of social mobility.” (Fogli and Guerrieri). These two quotes compare the reality

when it comes to “rich” families and “poor” families getting an education. Most poor families

never end up having the same chances as rich families do, hindering their chance to be able to

achieve the American Dream. Education is essential to life, it’s beneficial to learn different things

when it comes to wanting to become something, especially when one wants a high-paying job.

Being paid well means one can buy nice things for themselves, achieving the American Dream.

When one tries to apply for higher-paying jobs, their diploma will have to be higher to be

required for the job. But, when economic inequality comes into play, poorer families will not be

able to afford college. This means that the family's offspring will most likely not be able to get a

high-paying job to sustain their living. But for people in richer families, it’s more attainable.

Overall, most Americans will not achieve the American Dream in their lifetime in terms

of wealth and success. Unless one was born into wealth, it would be near impossible to fully

achieve every aspect of the American Dream. The economic instability and inequality based on

demographics that later play into one's education and how one will be able to climb up the

economic ladder will most likely forever haunt America and hinder Americans from achieving

the dream they want the most.

Works Cited

Bruno, Alexander. 2020. “What Really Is the American Dream?” APSA Preprints.

https://preprints.apsanet.org/engage/api-gateway/apsa/assets/orp/resource/item/

5eed251f042e630019ecb22c/original/what-really-is-the-american-dream.pdf. Accessed 6

Feb 2024.

Fogli, Alessandra, and Guerrieri Veronica. “The End of the American Dream? Inequality and

Segregation in US Cities.” Becker Friedman Institution, 12 Aug 2019,

mhttps://bfi.uchicago.edu/insight/research-summary/the-end-of-the-american-dream-

inequality-and-segregation-in-us-cities/. Accessed 6 Feb 2024.

Goodman, Laurie S., and Christopher Mayer. “Homeownership and the American Dream.” The

Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 32, no. 1, 2018, pp. 31–58. JSTOR,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/26297968. Accessed 21 Feb. 2024.

Marginson, Simon. “Economic and Social Inequality.” The Dream Is Over: The Crisis of Clark

Kerr’s California Idea of Higher Education, University of California Press, 2016, pp.

143–51. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1kc6k1p.23. Accessed 21 Feb.

2024.

Picchi, Amiee. “The ‘American Dream’ costs far more than most people will earn in their

lifetime.” CBS News, 12 Dec 2023, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-dream-

cost-3-4-million-house-college-cars-retirement/. Accessed 1 Feb 2024.

Yellen, Janet L. “Perspectives on Inequality and Opportunity from the Survey of Consumer

Finances.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, vol. 2, no.

2, 2016, pp. 44–59. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.7758/rsf.2016.2.2.02. Accessed 21 Feb.

2024.