My must read of the day is "Is the American Dream dead?" in the Washington Post:
That's according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll that shows just one in three people believe "most children in this country will grow up to be better off" than their parents. (A whopping 63 percent said their kids will be worse off.) Not only are those numbers stunning but they are also a stunning reversal from CNN data at the end of the last century (1999 to be exact)—when two-thirds of Americans predicted that children would grow up to have it better than their parents.
And the CNN/ORC data is far from the only evidence we have that the long-running belief that each generation will be better off than the last is fading. In 2013, the Post did a major survey alongside the Miller Center at the University of Virginia that sought to dig into the topic. Fifty four percent of those tested by WaPo in 2013 said that they were "better off" than their parents while just 39 percent said they thought their children would have a better quality of life than they have. […]
Uncertainty is something politicians loathe. It makes attempting to divine the will of the electorate that much harder. But, the defining trait of our modern age is uncertainty—a lack of surety that the future will be better than the past or that there is any sort of safety net there to catch us if we fall.
I've heard many people discuss this poll in the recent days. I think it's interesting and relevant because it gives us insight into important economic indicators such as consumer confidence. I understand that the majority of Americans feel like the current economic climate is difficult and that things aren't easy, and they're right, but since when did ease become a characteristic we attribute to the American Dream?
The implication with this standard is that a lack of confidence and a more challenging road equals a flailing American Dream.
I don't buy that at all.
Not to mention, this type of discussion suggests the American Dream is predominately about money, and that's a definition I refuse to accept.
Monetary fulfillment is an aspect of the American Dream, it's not the sole purpose of it. In fact, the iconic writings we attribute to the depiction of the American Dream, from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Langston Hughes, offer reminders that it must be more than that.
The American Dream isn't about certainty or a concrete number in your bank account. It's about opportunity and the freedom to succeed. Success is relative and today's economic situation does not bode well for inspiration, but a dream isn't crushed because it's harder. Yet that’s what everyone seems to be writing, and it's whiny.