American Dream: Dead or Alive? Due to InCome Inequality

American Dream: Dead or Alive? Due to Income Inequality

The American Dream has been threatened and damaged over the past several decades. Why is this? The biggest competitor of the Dream is income inequality. Over the years, income inequality has trained, gotten bigger, and tougher to conquer. The American Dream, on the other hand, is fighting for its life trying to keep the middle class alive. The American Dream does not want to let the middle class lose and fall back into historic times where the social classes were aristocracy and peasantry. Not enough Americans know about this fight going on between the heavy weight and the lightweight. If Americans know about the fight, they don’t know that the Dream is on the ropes and falling behind. In order for the American Dream to win, it will take a lot more than experts think. President Obama has stated that income inequality is the “defining challenge of our time” that has “jeopardized middle-class American’s basic bargain- that if you work hard, you have a chance to get ahead” (US News, Peralta).

One problem that I am assuming is punching the Dream in the face, is the fact that not enough Americans know about the income inequality gap, or don’t know enough details about the gap. Studies have been done to prove that Americans acknowledge of the income gap is very minimal. The richest Americans are probably okay with the rest of America not knowing about it, because this way they can secretly build up more wealth and buy more items they don’t need, like more cars, which may be driven a few times a year.

This topic of income inequality gap is important because the middle class may no longer exist in the future. With the way America is headed right now, the American Dream would die with the middle class as well. As Americans, we do not want there to be two social classes: aristocracy and peasantry. If only two social classes exist, Americans in the peasantry class will have no motivation to work hard to move up the corporate ladder or better themselves as it would be almost impossible. However, if the middle class and the Dream is still alive, anyone can still work hard and be motivated to succeed.

The American Dream has been alive for many decades. In fact, the original term “American Dream” was created during the Great Depression in the late 1920’s by a man named James Adams. James Adams’ definition of the American Dream “is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability and achievement, regardless of social class or circumstances of birth” (They say I say, p. 610). As time went on, Adams seemed to be correct about his definition of the Dream. However, as decades passed and the world changed, so would the idea of the American Dream. McClelland, says when he was growing up in the 1970s,

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