American Dream
Taijah Lucas
December 16, 2014
AP Language and Composition
Ms. Cutkomp
The Status of the American Dream While growing up we’ve all had the same idea of adulthood; a big house, happy family and a white picket fence. This is also known as the American Dream. Most Americans equate the American dream as having stability through your career and home life with the ability to do things you want to do. Even from when we first became an independent country, we have always valued equality and the opportunity to advance in society. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life Liberty and the pursuit by Happiness” (Constitution). Also when our country was younger the opportunities for jobs and growth were equal, thus the American Dream was more attainable. This was probably true because there were no clear economic statuses and everyone had to work equally as hard to get what they needed. But now times have changed. Although the American Dream was once achievable, the current economic status of America causes the American Dream almost impossible to reach.
There was once a time that the only way to make a living was through farming or religion and the inhabitants of these jobs truly enjoyed the work making them happy in life
America is seen as an industrial country that is able to compete with others due to its top notch technology, but what we as a country don’t understand is that it is also contributing to the downfall of the American dream. Recently the idea of outsourcing and globalization is common when discussing our economy. Many companies like Coca Cola, Google, and Apple take that as an opportunity to get cheaper labor but an excess amount of product (Zakaria). This combined with all the technology used in companies on a daily basis takes the once important middle class jobs and sends them across the world. “… but it would seem that
December 16, 2014
AP Language and Composition
Ms. Cutkomp
The Status of the American Dream While growing up we’ve all had the same idea of adulthood; a big house, happy family and a white picket fence. This is also known as the American Dream. Most Americans equate the American dream as having stability through your career and home life with the ability to do things you want to do. Even from when we first became an independent country, we have always valued equality and the opportunity to advance in society. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life Liberty and the pursuit by Happiness” (Constitution). Also when our country was younger the opportunities for jobs and growth were equal, thus the American Dream was more attainable. This was probably true because there were no clear economic statuses and everyone had to work equally as hard to get what they needed. But now times have changed. Although the American Dream was once achievable, the current economic status of America causes the American Dream almost impossible to reach.
There was once a time that the only way to make a living was through farming or religion and the inhabitants of these jobs truly enjoyed the work making them happy in life
America is seen as an industrial country that is able to compete with others due to its top notch technology, but what we as a country don’t understand is that it is also contributing to the downfall of the American dream. Recently the idea of outsourcing and globalization is common when discussing our economy. Many companies like Coca Cola, Google, and Apple take that as an opportunity to get cheaper labor but an excess amount of product (Zakaria). This combined with all the technology used in companies on a daily basis takes the once important middle class jobs and sends them across the world. “… but it would seem that