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Death to the American dream? Poll finds most agree hard work no longer guarantees economic gain
A majority of Americans say the prior generation had an easier time buying a home, starting a business or being a full-time parent
A new poll has found most U.S. adults agree hard work no longer guarantees economic gain, crushing the long-held cultural belief known as the American dream.
There is a running joke on TikTok, which is predominantly used by younger adults, that the Baby Boomer generation is now able to sell their homes for millions after buying them with a handful of raspberries.
This sentiment rang true in a recent survey from The Wall Street Journal and NORC at the University of Chicago, as well as in interviews conducted by the publication. A majority of respondents said the prior generation had an easier time buying a home, starting a business or being a full-time parent.
“There’s limits to what hard work can actually bring people these days,” Bill Sanchez, a 30-year-old criminal defense attorney and Army veteran who makes roughly $72,000 a year living in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, told the WSJ.
Jerry Esch, a 56-year-old from Windsor, Colorado, was making roughly $200,000 a year before he was laid off this summer after working at Microsoft for 20 years. He and his wife still have a mortgage to pay off.
Esch said salaries haven’t risen with “ridiculous” home prices. “How we address that is the biggest thing in fixing that American dream,” he said.
The US is an empire in decline and has been since we the 80s when we took our focus off of improving the lives of people and wages began stagnating. As more and more people lose faith in America, look for greater and greater political swings as people look ever harder for fixes and ways to improve their lives.