So growing up, I had this idea that the American dream was about that if you put in an honest amount of work, you would be rewarded with a good life. This would mean you would be able to take care of yourself and your family, afford a car and a house. In my view, working one job would probably be enough.
Nowadays, I get the idea that the American dream has become about working your ass off in order to have a chance to become a millionaire. Somehow glorifying “the grind” appears to be a part of it too now.
The American dream has been slipping out of reach gradually since the 80s, but people just keep hoping real hard about it; poll done about a year ago shows that close to half of Americans think they’ll be billionaires one day.
Edit: The poll more accurately says nearly half of Americans think it’s possible they’ll be billionaires. Which is, for all practical purposes, no less wrong.
That’s actually insane. I’d love to see it broken down by party affiliation as well.
Aka people who don’t realize how much a billion dollars is and what you have to do to get it. That is, have rich parents, to start with.
What’s the difference between a Million and a Billion?
About a Billion
Nonsense. If you can save even $1 per day, after a mere 1 billion days you’ll be a billionaire! Anyone can achieve that if they put their mind to it!
Which is more true by the year. Economic policy in the US and (to a slower extent) Europe has been shifting toward letting the rich horde wealth and away from new wealth being created, again since the 80s.
Interesting source, thanks!
the dream is well and alive for those in the top 10%. They are the ones who are culturally dominate. All the writers in the media, etc. As well as the doctors, lawyers, business people, etc. They live in a exclusive bubble and they don’t associate with the bottom 90%.
They see the rest of us as just lazy idiots who should have ‘worked harder’ like they did, by having parents that can afford to pay for your housing and education into adulthood.
That explains all the writers for popular TV, movies, and book series who are living in quads eating ramen in the their 30s. The reason there’s massive a doctors shortage is because people with money don’t want to go into a low paying position, and people without money can’t afford to make $30k year during their residency as their student loans go into repayment. The only way to become rich as a doctor now is to patent something, which is not why most people become doctors. Lawyers who make top sums all come from 16ish very expensive schools and are often legacies. And the gold rush of getting into tech companies and then falling into success is almost entirely over. If you’re not born wealthy there are fewer opportunities every day to change that.