The American Dream: Myth or Reality?

The NY Times recently conducted a poll to see how people felt about the concept of the ‘American dream’ in this current economic climate with unemployment and housing foreclosures at an all time high. The responses were surprising.

“Although the nation has plunged into its deepest recession since the Great Depression, 72% of Americans that were polled….believe it is possible to start out poor in the U.S., work hard and become rich– a classic definition of the American Dream.” (Seelye, Katharine. What Happens to the American Dream in a Recession?, NY Times, May 8, 2009).

44% said that they had achieved their idea of the American Dream. 31% thought that they would achieve it in their lifetime. Only 20% had given up on striving to achieve it all together.

Barry Glasner, a professor in Sociology at USC, believes that during difficult times people hold fast to their dreams and ideals, but define success differently. 998 people were polled to answer the question, “ what does the phrase ‘American dream’ mean to you?”.

19% related their answer to financial security and 20% gave answers related to freedom and opportunity. Less people related material success to achieving their dreams. Most respondents attached their concepts to abstract values.

Here are some of respondents answers:
“ Freedom to live our own life.”
“That everyone has a fair chance to succeed.”
“To be healthy and have nice friends and family.”
“To become whatever I want to be.”
“ More like Huck Finn; escape to the unknown; follow your dreams.”
“ Working at a secure job, being able to have a home and live happily as you can not spending too much money.”

For most Americans the prospect of becoming rich and famous is slim, but it is not so much in the ‘dream’ that people believe, but in the ‘possibility’ of achieving that dream. 72% that were polled still believe that, whatever their vision of the American dream is, it is still possible, even in today’s economic climate.

Incidentally, the phrase “the American Dream” is said to derive from the Great Depression in 1931. Author James Truslow Adams wrote, “ It is not the 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 the fullest stature of which they are innately capable.”, in his book The Epic of America.

How people define their vision seems to be a very individual process.
How do you define your vision of the ‘American Dream’?