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The American Dream!

I

Integrityrespec

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What is the American Dream. Is it the same as it was in 1787 when written and 1789 when ratified?
Here's principles the Dream was founded on.
The foundation of the American Dream is built upon the American ideals of individual rights, liberty, equality of opportunity, and the pursuit of happiness, as articulated in the Declaration of Independence. While often associated with material success like homeownership and financial security through hard work and sacrifice, the original concept also emphasized achieving one's fullest potential and contributing to the common good. This ideal of upward mobility and prosperity for all, regardless of background, has been a core tenet of American identity since the nation's founding.
The term was popularized by historian James Truslow Adams in his 1931 book, The Epic of America, defining it as "a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement".

  • The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the Declaration's statement that all individuals are created equal and are endowed with "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".

Key Elements
  • Hard Work: Success is seen as the direct result of diligence and effort. The dream relies on the principle that hard work, risk-taking, and sacrifice are the means to achieve success and a better life.

  • Prosperity and Success: The dream involves achieving wealth and a comfortable lifestyle. While historically the dream included material gains like homeownership, it also encompassed intangible aspirations like self-actualization and moral progress.

  • Upward Social Mobility: The chance to improve one's social and economic standing is a core component.

  • Freedom and Equality: The underlying ethos includes the promise of a society where all individuals have the chance to reach their full potential without being limited by their birth circumstances. The dream is centered on the belief that each person has the freedom and right to seek prosperity and happiness.
 
The American dream is dead and it's not coming back.

Hard work gets you entirely jack shit at 99% of companies these days where you're just a number and can and will be replaced or just fired in an instant the second the company thinks they can no matter how hard you work.

You think they notice you working through lunch or outside working hours?
They don't and they actively take advantage of the suckers who do.

There's a reason why many countries in Europe have do not contact laws for employees outside of contracted hours.
 
Your assumption is that you HAVE to work for someone else. You can start up your own company and be a job creator. Then you'll know what hard work, risk and sacrifice is all about. It's a lot easier to just work for someone else.
 
The people who most loudly proclaim the wonders of the American Dream also seem to be the people consistently voting for a party that does everything it can to transfer that dream to the richest of the rich; the party whose leader has been absolutely decimating small businesses with a massive tax increase on the lower stratas (tariffs), enacted so as to fund the massive tax cuts for the richest.

You voted for that leader, @Integrityrespec, so don't tell us about how you value the American dream.....especially when you had AI write the elements up for you.



(Seriously, though. Pop "define the American dream" into google and the AI will spit out "his" bullet points)
 
The American Dream is dead, people work more and more for less and less. This has been going on for a while, but it seems now it's taken ridiculous proportions. There is no upwards mobility any longer, all positions are reserved for the people born with a silver spoon. Home ownership is becoming impossible for a whole generation. And freedom and equality is quashed right now by the government. The American dream has been dyoing for a while, and Trump is the bullet that put it out of it's misery.
 

Yeah I mean I'd agree that the situation in America isn't ideal, but if you look at the statistics it's actually obscene how much more materially wealthy the middle-upper middle class is than their parallels in Europe. Additionally, while the social programs in Europe are superior, they're beginning to realize that those superior systems have long term implications in increasingly irrelevant and economically stagnant nations, which is why half of these countries are borderline enslaved by their pensioner class.

I suspect most people who bitch about America and sing Europe's praises in a completely uncritical way are not very worldly people and I'd encourage them to do some traveling instead of listening to intentionally dramatic political commentary online.
 

When you consider all the years we've lived under slavery and Jim Crow, it is indeed a dream.
 
Integrityrespec said:
  • The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the Declaration's statement that all individuals are created equal and are endowed with "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".
Click to expand...


Are you sure that is what the Declaration of Independence said?
 
The American dream is available to fewer and fewer people. But that's because people aren't satisfied with a middle-class lifestyle, they want to live like the top 10% but they can't stomach the hard work and sacerfice to make that happen.
 
I do have to applaud anyone who is for King and Country. OR in the case of the US, whoever is the President and Country. Wait a minute!! Not just ANY President if I remember the vitriol towards some and the hero worship towards others.

Ok, so knock the King out of what I said. I applaud anyone who is for Country. I applaud Canadians for being proud of Canada. Germans for being proud of Germany. Aussies being proud of being Australian. And so forth.

However, an ideal often does not turn into reality. The ideal is in one's mind. One's perception. Take any two people and ask them what makes America America and you will get two different answers.

THEN, in some cases, the one who disagrees with the other will start in on the labeling, the name-calling, the lowbrow insults. The "You ain't American enough" rant.

THAT TOO defines a country. The people who live in it and how tolerant or intolerant they are. How they treat those not like themselves.

So then what happens to the ideal?
 
joluoto said:
Home ownership is becoming impossible for a whole generation.
Click to expand...
Buying a house seemed impossible to me when I was in my 20s and 30s, and that was 50 years ago, when home prices were roughly 3 times a person's yearly income. I guess now they're 5 times. So what're you going to do, whine? Or get a better education and a better job?
 
Anger anger. Is that also what defines a country? Read something someone wrote and blow up at them? Since a country is made up of people, the way those people behave might define a country as well. Yelling at those you disagree with tells you something about the country as well.

Standing in line, marking time
Waiting for the welfare dime
'Cause they can't buy a job
A man in a silk suit hurries by
As he catches the poor old ladies' eyes
Just for fun he says, "Get a job"
That's just the way it is
Some things'll never change
That's just the way it is
Ah, but don't you believe them
Said, "Hey little boy, you can't go where the others go
'Cause you don't look like they do"
I said, "Hey, old man, how can you stand to think that way?
Did you really think about it before you made the rules?"
 
Integrityrespec said:
This ideal of upward mobility and prosperity for all, regardless of background, has been a core tenet of American identity since the nation's founding.
Click to expand...
Did you actually write that with a straight face? Do you really believe that Thomas Jefferson really meant "all men" are created equal when he penned the Declaration? Keep in mind he frequently had sex with one or more of his female slaves.

We fought a Civil War because a good portion of the country was willing to destroy the nation in order to preserve their right to own other human beings.

Women were beaten in the streets for having the audacity to suggest they ought to be allowed to vote.

Americans of Japanese ancestry were stripped of their property and freedom because of their race during WWII.

The National Guard was deployed to force a defiant governor to allow black citizens access to the same education as white citizens.

Prosperity for all as a core tenet of the American identity? Tell that to the mine workers who had their heads bashed in by local police thugs for thinking they ought to be allowed to form a labor union.

I could go on, but I've made my point.
 
Oh. I see. It's all about the individual. No part of the American Dream recognizes that there is any need to make allowances for the fact that the individual lives in a society which needs an efficient engaged government. No, none of that. Why spoil the dream with the reality that the dream can't be protected nor preserved without the common need of an efficient government which does that protecting and preserving?

Dreaming is easy. Making dreams a lasting reality is work.

Today's Americans don't want to work at that. No. It's much easier to denigrate and resent the government, pretend it is always going to be a "bad thing that's necessary," then try to get control of it to exploit it for the benefit of billionaires. .. ..
 
Integrityrespec said:
Success is seen as the direct result of diligence and effort.
Click to expand...
Yeah.
They taught me this nonsense in school.
Turns out it is bullshit.

Success is a direct result of birth advantages, who you know and dumb luck.

Look it up. All studies showed this.

Hard work never falls in the top 3
 
Wow, such an negative outlook. Sounds resentful? I beg to differ, I think many still see the American dream as a reality, maybe a bit harder to get there, but definately attainable. As always some seem to think it should be handed to them on a silver platter for little or no effort because, "they deserve it". That's not how the dream works. The Dream requires you put something in to get something out. As Trunslow stated, "The Epic of America, defining it as "a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement". Today we see many who think they are owed the result just because they are here.
 
LOL! I just made it easy on myself and everyone else. The American Dream is an idea that this nation acted out in real time in the real world. You seem bitter because I feel I've been well served for my hard work and dedication to getting ahead. Have you not benefitted from the Dream? Whether I searched the topic, American Dream or not makes no never mind, as it is what it is and you didn't question the explanation of the AD. You just claim it's no longer there. I have children and grandchildren, friends and acquaintences that will vehemently disagree with you. As I said, didn't the dream help you? Just a bitter failure to achieve it's promise if you work for it?
 
Allan said:
Its an aspirational dream. For white people.
Click to expand...
Really. Read Robert Woodson's, Read,White and Black, or Read, White and Black II, and see if that's true, because it's not. Again bitter failure. Garbage in garbage out mentality.
 
Context is key, the times in which it was written, the generally accepted ideals, morals and societal condition of the day. All those have to be considered to understand the mindset. But, then you don't seem to believe that. So do you believe hard work pays off with positive results? That applying onesself is a key to success?
How about those that are the product of failed socio-economic structure throughout Africa? Who do you blame for the poverty and poor living conditions, jobs, educational opportunity and famine? Your Dream is corrupted because of the lack of input in the form of effort.
 
noonereal said:
Yeah.
They taught me this nonsense in school.
Turns out it is bullshit.

Success is a direct result of birth advantages, who you know and dumb luck.

Look it up. All studies showed this.

Hard work never falls in the top 3
Click to expand...
Wow! Such a bleak outlook. I argue that you are poorly informed and living the result of your effort or lack of effort. I grew up poor, with a speech impedement that brought me plenty of teasing and being made fun of. I struggle in school for most of my early life and my home was a product of repeated broken marriages by my father, 6 times, and being shuffled around several times to family members. Today I have a lovely home, above average retirement, have traveled the world, have a happy life, happy family consistently of children and grandchildren. My brother and sister have the same. We all worked to get there, and did the overwhelming majority of the work without help. Hard work, effort, dedication to getting out of the pattern of another poor kid with no future. Sorry you didn't do the same.
 
Mr Person:
"The people who most loudly proclaim the wonders of the American Dream also seem to be the people consistently voting for a party that does everything it can to transfer that dream to the richest of the rich; "
Your statement above tells us that the democrats/liberals have failed their supporters. Promises not delivered. How often have the democrats been in charge and yet they tell us every election year, it hasn't worked, so keep voting for us until we get it fixed. Maybe you are supporting the wrong team.
 
That’s fine for an individual. However, surely the idea should be that anyone who works full-time in any job should be able to afford a home and support a family. I don’t deny that hard work is important, but to be perfectly honest, every financial success I’ve had in my life can be boiled down to dumb luck with investments
 
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