The American dream… is it reality or is it just some fantasy people believe in, or in other words; a myth?
Overall the American dream is a myth. Many things in the United States are not as affordable as they once
were, especially housing prices. The gap between the rich and the poor is continuously growing in the
United States, meaning that the rich people are becoming wealthier and the poor are becoming less
wealthy. Also people from other countries don't see America as the land of opportunity, because of the “safety net” and where Europe is now becoming a better place for opportunities.
In the past the American dream was more probable that people would achieve it. Over time the prices went up in America. Like housing prices, gas prices, oil prices, School, College prices, ect. For example oil is becoming harder to find so people tend to raise the price. This also goes for gas and gasoline.
And since population is growing, many children need a school to get an education, so they raise the price of schools and some of that extra money to add on new classrooms, bigger cafeterias, ect, and/or raise the price so that parents who most desperately want their child/children to go to school, would pay more.
And there is another big reason why the American dream has become a myth.
Over the decades the rich are getting richer. There are several reasons why this is happening. One of the
reasons is that the tax cuts are benefiting the rich more than they are the poor. “The wealthiest 20
percent of households in 1973 accounted for 44 percent of total U.S. income, according to Census Bureau.
Their share jumped to 50 percent in 2002, while everyone else's fell. For the bottom fifth, the share
dropped from 4.2 percent to 3.5 percent”, says Leigh Strope, author an article named “common dreams”.
Having the poor become poorer is a problem for people to achieve the American dream. There are 35 million poor people in the United States. That's way more than there are rich people in the United States. It is easier for rich people to achieve the American dream, but people from other countries are not immediately rich. So when the poor are becoming poorer, it will be harder for people to afford the best schools for their child/children for them to later find a good job that will pay them well. This is mainly what achieving the American dream means; to have a good education and later have a good job. But this is not all; there is another reason why the American dream is becoming the “American nightmare”.
Now people don't see America as the land of opportunities or go there to achieve the American dream. Instead many people go to Europe, because Europe, as a matter of fact, is now becoming a better place to achieve the dream. “Europe provides better primary education, more job security and a more generous social net. They are willing to pay higher taxes and submit to regulation in order to bolster their quality of life”, states Andrew Moravcsik. So the “American Dream” has now become the “European Dream”, for many people nowadays. And when people have achieved their dream, they might encourage others to come to Europe instead of America. But the American dream is has not been given up yet; people today still travel to America to achieve the dream and many of them still achieve it.
Truly, the American dream has become a myth. America's prices are going up. The rich are indeed becoming richer and the poor are becoming poorer. And people have started to forget the American dream and look up to the European dream…
The American dream isn't but almost is ...lost.
