The American Dream

I cannot remember if I have written about the American Dream. I'm sure I have, or, at least, I have discussed it with some of you. No matter. I am going to write about it again. And it's going to be long.

A more apt title for this would have been "The Death of the American Dream" but that seems a little pessimistic. The sister post for this one is "The Cost of Education" and what I write here should be read with that post in mind.

First, a little background on the term "The American Dream". According to Wikipedia: "In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, 'life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement' regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.'" The full quote from Adams' Epic of America reads


But there has been also the American dream, that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.


I find this definition has been lost over time. Since the end of World War II, the American Dream has been owning a house, having a good-paying job, marriage, and kids--with some variation. But it is the idea of the "self-made man", with limited definitions of what "making it" and "success" mean.

The meritocracy of Adams' definition has been infected with money--leading to a far more class-based society than I believe he imagined. Social mobility, and the belief that it is attainable have decreased. In  the article"the American Myth of Social Mobility", the author states


Many cite education as the key to socioeconomic mobility, and there the inequalities in the American educational system clearly play a role. For example, the United States Department of Education has shown that the highest performing eighth graders from low socioeconomic backgrounds have about the same chance of completing a bachelors degree as the lowest performing eighth graders from high socioeconomic backgrounds. Translation: When it comes to higher education, the amount to money your parents have is much more critical than academic potential, and higher education is a  key to socioeconomic mobility.


And this is the part that relates to "The Cost of Education" post: Education is expensive and without it, it is impossible to "make it", whatever that means.

One of the defining features of American society has generally been the size of the middle class. But recently, it has shrunk, or at least been perceived to have shrunk. As you can read about here. The age group most affected by this: 18-29 year olds. This is due in large part because real wages have stagnated. Meaning, pay increases have not kept pace with inflation--not even taking the price of goods into account. In this article, Drew Desilver says


But after adjusting for inflation, today's average hourly wage has just about the same purchasing power as it did in 1979...in real terms, the median has barely budged over that period [1979-2014]. What gains have been made, have gone to the upper income brackets Since 2000, usual weekly wages have fallen 3.7% (in real terms) among workers in the lowest tenth of the earnings distribution, and 3% among the lowest quarter. But among people near the top of the distribution, real wages have risen 9.7%.


It is getting more difficult in this country to live if you are not wealthy. And if you are not wealthy and go to college to get a job that will allow you to climb the social ladder, you will pay and be saddled with loans, and have difficulties finding a job. Which leads to underemployment.

This article may be from 2014, but the point it makes remains the same. In August 2014, the "real" unemployment rate was 12.6%. That means, when the article was written, there were almost the same number of people marginally employed as were unemployed during the height of the Great Depression. Added to this, most of these workers are earning something near minimum wage.

I searched "current living wage in us" in Google and was presented with this statement:


A single-mother with two children earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour needs to work 125 hours per week, more hours than there are in a 5-day week, to earn a living wage. The living wage varies based on the cost of living and taxes where families live.


The first link under that search leads to this article, which says


The minimum wage does not provide a living wage for most American families. A typical family of four (two working adults, two children) needs to work more than 3 full-time minimum-wage jobs (a 68-hour work week per working adult) to earn a living wage. Across all family sizes, the living wage exceeds the poverty threshold, often used to identify need.


There are efforts to increase the minimum wage, but it is hard not to think that is merely a band-aid on a bullet wound.

As a historian, I know the struggles workers have experienced to get fair pay. I know the living conditions. I know the hope. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" No longer are those masses just immigrants from foreign lands, they are our neighbors, our friends, our families, ourselves. We need massive change to reclaim the American Dream.