future of the american dream essay example

1. Woratee Promlikhitkul
Dr. Dana Nichols
Writing 100
Future of the American Dream
From my point of view, the future of the American dream is still a very controversial topic.
Many people would state that the future of the American dream can stay the same way from
generations to generations. Others, however, would argue that it changes from time to
time. The future of the American dream for people can be the ideal life that they have
always wanted, but can everyone really achieve it? Is it true that the American dream just
sit there and wait for people who work hard to come and get it? What if the American
dream is only achievable by some group of people and not even the majority? By looking at
the courses of history in the United States and current trend of society, one would be able to
see that the traditional American Dream that typical children who grows up in America
would always think of might not apply to most of the citizens, not even the white middle
classes. The opportunity to pursue traditional American dream is disappearing for most of
the people. This is important because if people cannot achieve American, it could means
that the quality for living in the future might be lower and people can be less happy.
Considering the most commonly known definition of the American dream which says that an
individual should get a decent job, work hard, succeed, buy a house, and have a family, all
of these might not be possible for minorities who do not get the equal rights with the
dominant group. From the history, it is clear that American dream was not accessible to
everyone. According to Ari Shapiro, “At that time, the American Dream was not available to
everyone in the country. Black people were kept as slaves. Women were not allowed to
vote or own property.” This clearly states that the American dream may be out of reach for
a number of people.
As Shapiro has described that the opportunity to follow the American dream for black
people may be limited, the current situation in the society also suggests that the majority of
black people do not receive the same treatment with white people. In addition to the
discrimination between the social classes divided by the income, black people also have to
face with the racial discrimination, which makes things even harder for them. According to
Chavis in “Black American Income Inequality,”
In the United States, overall income inequality has steadily increased during last 30 years
between the super wealthy and the super poor. When you add race as a distinguishing

2. characteristic, the widening gap of income inequality between Blacks and Whites in the U.S.
exposes the lingering impact of years of targeted discrimination and economic injustice
imposed on vast majority of Black Americans. Income inequality is the extent of disparity
between high income and low income households.
This inequality would make it harder for black people to find jobs compared to white people.
Their income will consequently be lower and it becomes even more difficult to support their
family, which would then reduce the opportunity for black children to receive the same
education as white majority and lower their chance of pursuing the American dream in the
future.
Not only racial category that would affect the chance of reaching the American dream,
gender is also a big gap that is not yet solved. Since the start of civilization until today,
women seems to receive less rights from the society than men. In the past, women could
not vote. They were subjected to their fathers or husbands to decide things for them. As
Susan B. Anthony has clearly discussed this in her speech,
The women, dissatisfied as they are with this form of government, that enforces taxation
representation – that compels them to obey laws to which they never have given their
consent – that imprisons and hangs them without a trial by a jury of their peers – that robs
them, in marriage, of the custody of their own persons, wages, and children – are this half of
the people who are left wholly at the mercy of the other half… It is downright mockery to talk
to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the only means
of securing them provided by this democratic republican government – the ballot. (411-412)
The reason behind these inequality is because of tradition. Because ideal woman in many
society is supposed to be passive, caring, and submissive, this is why the society would not
give the equal opportunity for women that they give to men. Not only the women’s role in
child rearing is under-valued, in general, women get less education, less employed work,
and less income.
That afternoon, several hundred men were confirmed in the power of a powerful institution.
But many of the women felt the shame of the powerless: the choking on silence, the
complicity, the helplessness. We were orphaned from our institution. (Wolf 427)
This statement from the essay “A Woman’s Place”​ ​by Naomi Wolf clearly describe the
feeling of the women around the world that are excluded from the rights that they should
possess. It does not seem right for anyone to achieve their dream when half of the citizens
are still denied of their equal rights.

3. In the gender topic, may be the LGBT group has to face with even harder obstacles than
women do. It is so because in many parts of the society, they are still denied. It is harder
for them to apply for jobs and receive the same payment with heterosexual. They are also
citizens and should receive the same opportunity to pursue the American dream. Amy
Ritchart discussed this in the article “Local Gays Seek Equality, ‘the all-American Dream.’”
Clarksville resident David Tetley said he believes being gay should not deny him aspirations
of a traditional future. “I want the all-American dream. I want the house, the white picket
fence, the dogs, the husband. I love kids. I do want that,” he said. Tetley also believes he
deserves the same constitutional rights as any heterosexual American citizen. “I live my life
the best I can,” Tetley said. “I pay my taxes. We’re still citizens. The majority of us abide by
the laws. Those are our rights given to us by the Constitution.”
However, in the society, the LGBTs often find it harder to receive the same treatment as the
heterosexual people do. They are often rejected from the family, work, and society.
According to Ben Maulbeck in “No, LGBT People are Not Richer than Straights,” a myth that
said the same-sex couples normally have more income than straight couples is wrong.
The best data we have on this is from a study conducted by Gallup in partnership with the
Williams Institute, based on interviews with more than 120,000 people-the largest survey of
LGBT Americans ever conducted, and by far the most robust methodologically. This study
found that LGBT people are poorer than the population at large: 35 percent of LGBT adults
have incomes of less than $24,000 a year, compared to 24 percent for the general
population.
The goal of the American dream is even harder to achieve for new generations of white
men. According to Shapiro,
“I think the American Dream for the average man doesn’t exist any more,” retiree Linden
Strandberg says on a recent visit to the Smithsonian American History museum in
Washington, D.C. The Strandberg family story has been repeated millions of times in the
last century. His parents immigrated from Sweden in the 1920s for economic opportunity.
Linden grew up and worked at the phone company in Chicago for 35 years. “I wasn’t smart
enough to go to college, so I wanted to get a steady job with decent pay,” he says. “With my
overtime I was able to buy a house, take trips to Europe and visit relatives there. I don’t
think a young person — woman or man — coming out of high school now could ever
achieve that.”
This is the case because nowadays, the social gap divided by income is even larger than
before. People who have money tends to have more power and they use that power to

4. their advantage that is to keep the social gap widened. A report in “Economic Equality and
the American Dream” by Gary Chapman shows that the taxes of the highest income
earners drops by more than a third, while the lowest earners are faced with more than
double taxes.
Although some would say that the situation involving the equality is getting better, the truth
is it is not. The income gap between black and white is still bigger than ever. Women
receive only about 2/3 wages for working the same job as men and it is also harder for them
to find fully employed works. LGBT group is still against the book and is not accepted by a
lot of people. They also do not have the legal rights in custody as the straight couples have.
Opportunities for men to climb up the social class become harder and harder as Michael
Thompson discuss in “Income Inequality”
Among men, the insignificant increase in income inequality across the U.S. obscures the
worsening inequality trends among several individual states. Among men, wage earners at
the 90th percentile started the period with salaries about 5.3 times larger than men at the
10th percentile and this ratio stayed relatively constant for six years.
In conclusion, the American dream might be a concept that was very attractive and
achievable for a period of time. However, the situation today makes it harder for common
people to reach the American dream because of many inequalities and obstacles for
different people. If the situation continues to be like this and nothing is solved, the future
generations might never be able to perceive the concept of the American dream as realistic
and the dream itself might disappear from the mind of normal pedestrians.

5. Works Cited
Anthony, Susan B. ​Creating America. ​Ed. Joyce Moser and Ann Watters. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2005. 410—416. Print.
Chavis, Benjamin F., J.R. “Black American Income Inequality.” ​Sacramento Observer​:
B3. Jan 2012. ​ProQuest. ​Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
Gary Chapman, REGULAR C. “Economic Equality and the American Dream.” ​Austin
American Statesman​: 0. Jan 23 2003.​ProQuest. ​Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Maulbeck, Ben F. “No, LGBT People are Not Richer than Straights.” ​Windy City Times​:
4. May 29 2013. ​ProQuest. ​Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Ritchart, Amy. “Local Gays Seek Equality, `the all-American Dream’.” ​The Leaf
Chronicle ​Mar 17 2004. ​ProQuest. ​Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
Shapiro, Ari. “American Dream Faces Harsh New Reality.” ​American Dreams: Then
and Now. ​NPR, 29 May 2012. Web. 20 Aug. 2013.
Thompson, Michael F., PhD. “Income Inequality.” ​Indiana Business Review​ 87.3
(2012): 1-4. ​ProQuest. ​Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Wolf, Naomi. “A Woman’s Place.” ​Short Takes: Model Essays for Composition. ​Ed.
Elizabeth Penfield. New York: Longman, 2002. 216—219. Print.