The American Dream is the foundation and cornerstone of American culture. The American Dream is more than just a phrase. It signifies more than just hopes and aspirations. It is the cultural embodiment of the American spirit. The American Dream, which was coined by historian Truslow Adams in 1931, during a time when American immigration was at one of its climaxes, proposed the idea that in America you’ll always be guaranteed social equality, financial freedom, and of course, a high standard of living with the right amount of hard work. This driving concept is ingrained within the hearts of millions of millions of hard-working and honest Americans, and this widely regarded myth continues to motivate every American and their dog that through perseverance in school and hard work all of the hopes of the American Dream are possible. Moreover, the promising prospects of the American Dream also drive waves of immigrants that seek the Holy Grail of the modern 21st century. But does the American Dream hold up to the legendary status others claim it to hold up to or is it really just a myth?
By far the most significant aspect of the American Dream is this ‘promise’ of education. Education is the most quintessential part of the success of a country. Education, and school specifically, is a breeding ground for interest and intellectual development, but most importantly, school gives people the opportunity to improve their social networking skills. However, this educational promise seems to be nothing more than just a myth, as might seem the American Dream itself. Many students are challenged by a multitude of problems that sadly limit their chances of pursuing education and success. Factors such as the cost of education, increasing competition, and the lack of funding for public schools contribute to a steep decline in graduation rates, and most importantly, discourage students from advancing up into higher education like college or even graduate school. These trends are particularly very concerning, because according to an article from U.S. News, from not too long ago (2017), “U.S. spending on elementary and high school education declined 3 percent from 2010 to 2014 even as its economy prospered”. Despite the U.S. being one of the greatest economic powerhouses of the century, the U.S. has continually spent less and less on education, whereas less developed and third-world countries such as Israel, Turkey, and Portugal have been spending increasingly more on education. Specifically, these three countries have been increasing spending on education expenditure by 76%, 24%, and 32% in the span of 4 years, whereas the U.S. went down 4%. This is not the end of it. More concerning is all of the money being taken away from young children’s educations is being put into prison systems, to accommodate for the massive spike in incarceration rates, in recent years. The tradeoff here is that students are unable to thrive in schools due to cuts in sports, after-school programs, and elective classes. A prime example of how integral budget cuts are to school systems is back in 2009 when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger cut nearly 500 million dollars from not only California school systems but state programs run to help aid people in need. What these budget cuts do is limit creativity and many different types of backgrounds from flourishing in school. How this all relates to the entire concept of the American Dream is that the chance of acquiring a real solid educational background is reserved for wealthy and established households.
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Speaking of the consequence of educational inequality. It is very difficult to comprehend the consequences of educational inequality without first considering its consequences on employment in high-paying jobs and, through this, of course, household income. Much unlike the American Dream seems to be, educational inequality is definitely not a myth. An article by the New York Times clearly suggests that household income has a directly proportional effect on college attendance. Additionally, a Pew Research Center study shows that people from higher-income families are almost as much as twice as likely to gain admission into top universities. Although some might argue that many universities, including top ones, also evaluate a student based on their socioeconomic level, clearly as the data shows it’s not enough. Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz in a CNNMoney interview called this ‘income segregation’. There are only two types of people in America and they are the rich and the poor. Stiglitz also reveals in this interview that people of higher socioeconomic backgrounds have a huge supply of educational resources that people of lower economic backgrounds don’t have access to. What do I mean by educational resources? What I mean is tutoring services, preparation books, camps, standardized testing preparation, and all the other like that people of lower economic backgrounds can’t really afford because of their circumstances. In this interview, Stiglitz also shockingly reveals that students of higher income families are more likely to score higher on standardized tests, twice as likely to be involved in some type of sport or educational program, and three, yes three times more likely to land an internship. Even geography shockingly affects one’s future outcomes. According to Stiglitz, wealthier areas have better educational and academic programs. Don’t even get me started on the lead. The higher amounts of lead found in lower-income neighborhoods have a significant effect in terms of cognitive growth for children. All of these limitations and circumstances make the American Dream sound like a complete joke.
The American Dream also promises equal access to jobs, but this is just simply not true, further diminishing the American Dream as nothing more than just a myth. Students of higher income families are much more likely to land a better job in industries such as computer sciences and biotechnology, while students of working- and middle-class families are likely just to land a minimum wage job or become unemployed while on the search for a better job that they are probably less qualified for. Studies show that often people of lower economic backgrounds usually fall into a ‘vicious cycle’, which really means that the permutation of a divide in terms of income as differences in life chances, caused by differences in household incomes limit people, specifically in this situation students from climbing up the ladder from their socioeconomic status that they are in. What this really means in short is that while the rich stay rich, the poor usually stay poor. This inevitable fact is a threat to the followers of the American Dream because people can’t work hard in America to try to climb up the ladder socioeconomically or reconstruct their current socioeconomic status. On top of all of this, quantitative data clearly shows that underemployment rates are exponentially rising every year in America. The reason why this is important and so big is because a stable income is a necessity in achieving aspects of the American Dream. A study by CIO magazine, which focuses on technical-related careers, reveals that the rise in occupational competitiveness critically limits students' abilities from lower-income households to secure employment because businesses make a good percentage of their hiring decision based on not only college attendance and experiences such as internships but also based on which college they went to. Most middle-class and low-income families will rather choose community colleges or cheaper public universities over bigger name universities or private universities because it’s more affordable, but if businesses make hiring decisions based on the universities students attended, it makes it very difficult for people of low-income and middle-class households to have good career start and make their way up in the socioeconomic ladder. If even securing a good job with a college education is difficult, what does this make of the American Dream that promises equal job access? Furthermore, higher-earning parents play a significant role in the educational and occupational success of their children. Stiglitz finds that children of wealthier households can get to be able to interact with their parents more often because of the increased flexibility of higher-paying technical jobs, whereas parents in lower-income households often find it difficult to interact with their children because lower-paying jobs are usually much less flexible. What this does is it leaves little to no guidance for children of lower-income households. An example that can be seen throughout the Bay Area is that a parent who is a computer programmer might enroll their child in after school programming class and could aid them in terms of advice or even teach them themselves, whereas as a parent that works all day at a gas station or liquor store leaves little guidance for their child, making it very easy for the child to fall into trouble, such as drugs and crime, further justifying this idea of a ‘vicious cycle’.
So, is the American Dream a reality? Well, the statistics and facts say otherwise. As shown above, the American Dream is really nothing more than a myth that should have appeared on an episode of MythBusters before the series ended. Achieving financial security in this country through a high-paying job and establishing a good family environment, in a family house seems to only apply to individuals born into these families, or otherwise known as the top 1%. Despite the statistics and facts, it doesn’t seem like any policy or social reform will change to aid in alleviating these social issues. The American Dream will remain nothing but just a phrase that descended in a golden decade in American history, suspended in time. Ironically, as the American economy continues to grow at an astonishing pace, it seems almost as if the American Dream continues to become a distant relic of the past even more so every year. Obviously, what seems to be at the heart of this issue is education. As educational competition continues to go up and acceptance is starting to decline, it seems as if in a couple of decades the economy of the country will start to depreciate. What’s significant about this entire issue is that little is being done to secure the country's future. This being said, I think I can agree with everyone when I say that it’s time for this freaking country to place more goddamn resources into restructuring the entire system, more specifically the educational system, to give people lower on the ladder a better chance at experiencing what this country was founded on, and that specifically is the American Dream.
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