Preview

Is the Dream Still Achievable?

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1143 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Is the Dream Still Achievable?
Is The Dream Still Achievable?
“American Dream” a term coined by James Truslow Adams in his book “The Epic of America” (404). Throughout time the American Dream has become harder to achieve, as the world is ever changing so are the aspirations of those who want to fulfill the American Dream. I believe that in a society where “93 percent of all financial wealth is controlled by the top 10 percent of the country” (My Budget 360), that there is a diminishing dream. So then this brings me to the question, is the American Dream still achievable? I believe that the answer is no. The lack of quality in education is contributed to less money being invested in education, financial stability, and a pessimistic society. That is why I believe the American Dream is no longer achievable.
In today’s economic turmoil, schools have been receiving budget cuts across the board. A perfect example would be Lamar University of Texas whose budget was cut by 15 million dollars (Moore) just this year. Furthermore Lamar University lost 120 employees (Moore). Since schools are getting money taken away from them they have to seek elsewhere to recuperate what they have lost; as a result colleges and universities have increased their tuition. We see that the rise in tuition is keeping low and moderate income students from ever attending a higher education institute (Zaho). On the same note Kindergarden-12th grade schools now have more students per classroom, meaning more students less teachers. This effects how much a teacher can teach a student overall, and how much attention one teacher can focus on one student throughout the year. The desired teacher to student ratio is now encroached upon. “There are less supplies, less teachers, less field trips, less extracurricular activities” said Principal Marshall; he later went on to say “The money being taken from education is lowering the overall quality of education” (McCartney).
Financial stability is another cause why Americans are losing



Cited: * The Burning Platform. N.p., 30 Jan. 2011. Web. 7 Sep. 2011 * MyBudget360 * Domhoff, William. “Wealth, Income, and Power.” Who Rules America? University of California at Santa Cruz, Sep. 2005. Web. 7 Sep. 2011 * Strachan, Maxwell * Robert McCartney. “Budget cuts, falling prestige take a toll on teacher. “The Washington Post” 4 Sep. 2011, ProQuest National Newspapers Core, ProQuest. Web. 7 Sept 2011 * Amy Moore * Zhao, Emmeline. “Fewer Low-Income Students Going to College.” Real Time Economics. N.p., 07 July 2010. Web. 7 Sep. 2011. * Yuan, Teresa. “More Kids, Fewer Teachers For Lake Stevens Classrooms.”King5.Com. N.p., 30 Aug. 2011. Web. 7 Sep. 2011. * Longley, Robert. “Two Thirds Feel American Dream Harder to Achieve.”About.com. N.p., 1 Oct. 2004. Web. 7 Sep. 2011. * Thomas, Mark. “How Many People Have Lost Their Jobs?” Economist View. N.p., 18 Sep. 2008. Web. 7 Sep. 2011. * “United States Unemployment Rate.” Trading Economics. N.p., Aug. 2011. Web. 7 Sep. 2011. * Farnham, Alan. “Gas Prices Going Up.” ABC World News. N.p., 21 Feb. 2011. Web. 7 Sep. 2011. * WIlson, William Julius. When Work Disappears: Introduction to College Reading And. Ed. Svetlana Lynch. N.p.: Pearson, n.d.  Web. 7 Sep. 2011. * Robert McCartney. “Budget cuts, falling prestige take a toll on teacher. “The Washington Post” 4 Sep. 2011, ProQuest National Newspapers Core, ProQuest. Web. 7 Sept 2011

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Final Paper Mgt 330

    • 3319 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Domhoff, G. William. "Who Rules America? ." Challenges to Corporate and Class Dominance (2010): 198-209. New York: McGraw Hill.…

    • 3319 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Maintaining a stable economy is no small challenge for any nation however possessing the ability to change and invent new and created ways of maintaining makes for a thriving economy. This newsletter will summarize the different economic factors that affect aggregate demand and supply such as unemployment, expectations, consumer income, and interest rates within the United States. Additionally, what fiscal policies are recommended by the United States government and whether or not these policies are effective and getting them back on track are discussed.…

    • 1418 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Aed 201 Course Syllabus

    • 2653 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall. |Week One: The Teaching Profession | | |Details |Due |Points | |Objectives |Identify intrinsic and extrinsic rewards in teaching. | | | | |Discuss how current educational reforms may affect the teaching profession.…

    • 2653 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Among the budget cuts that the city council is considering is a 5 percent reduction in funds for secondary education. As the principal of one of the junior high schools that could be affected, Stella is worried. Such a reduction would almost certainly mean teacher layoffs and fewer teachers teaching more students.…

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Economic inequality is more relevant than ever. Smart kids are not able to get the education they deserve simply because of their parents income. High school students that live in a poor area don’t have quality public schools to go to, while the kids in a wealthy area have better schools. This inequality is seen in college as a huge problem because kids who are geniuses cant go to college due to them not being able to afford it. Two authors of two different articles discuss these issues, which are “Why Education Is Not an Economic Panacea” by John Marsh and “For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall” by Jason DeParle. Both Authors attempt to persuade his audience, but one is more successful than the other. Jason DeParle is more effective in accomplishing his persuasive purpose of making the reader believe economic gap is growing due to him using more evidence to support his point, discussing where the beginning of economic inequality starts, and having a heart breaking college story that people can relate to more.…

    • 943 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Csu Budget Cuts

    • 2463 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Governor 's Budget for California State University Calls for Deep Cuts. Public Affairs of California State University. 10 January 2011. www.calstate.edu.…

    • 2463 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “a continuing recession, escalating political polarization, rising racial/ethnic tensions, a growing national debt, and a widening divide between the haves and the have nots portend a future fraught with unprecedented challenges to and clashes over the form and substance of public education in America” (p.1).…

    • 4094 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Some people say that the “American Dream” is dead, but I say, it most certainly is not. What is the “American Dream”? To some its freedom, lively hood, opportunities while to others it is food, not starving, or being able to take care of themselves and make a name for themselves. The American Dream is whatever you want it to be. There is no definition because it is interpreted differently depending on who is pursuing it, and what their situation is. The American Dream is how people keep themselves going. It is their last burst of energy in a marathon, their energy drink to get them through the last few hours of work. The American Dream is more than a fantasy, its a sense of hope and a way to help those in desperate need to find their happiness. What if you found yourself in a rut with no way to escape? What would you do to get yourself free of a downhill spiral? Imagine you are living in a poor, rickety place with not much food or income. Wouldn't you want something to look forward to, to keep you going and searching for the help and care you are in need of? Of course you would, and that is what the American Dream does. It gives people the push they need to steer their life in the right direction. No the American Dream most certainly is not dead, it is still alive and thriving just like it was 20 years ago and will be for at least the next century to come.…

    • 273 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The American dream is a term used in a lot of ways. Although research has shown that American dream can’t be attainable by most people, closer examination shows that it can be attainable by the following reasons. As Daniel J. Mitchell stated in New York Times im January 1st, 2015 “The United States is not a perfect country, but the American Dream is still a reality.” By that he meant that even with America’s Grow rate, poverty, unemployment rate in the past years and still going Americans can still chase their American dreams.…

    • 290 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The American Dream, generally defined as the ideal that citizens can achieve success through hard work and determination. In other words, if citizens work hard enough, they will be able to take care of their family, ensure a good future for their children, pay the bills, and still have extra money to live comfortably, even after retirement. But today, is this dream still possible? The truth is that, although it is something attainable, for most it will always be just a dream. There are many factors that come in the way of reaching the American Dream for example the high cost of education, social differences and failure.…

    • 364 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Fact claim

    • 1808 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In a society where a college education is necessary to attain a job, people will pay any price to get a degree. Since 1965 government assistance programs such as FAFSA have made attending college much more simple for the working class. However, such programs focus much of their efforts on assisting lower income students and fail to contribute to students from middle class families. Middle class students or their parents are caught in a situation in which they must pay for all of their college funds, or they are put into debt from the outrageous amount of loans. Financial aid is based off of the parent’s income until the age of 25, but there are situations in which not parents are able or willing to pay for their child’s education due to the high cost of tuition. Complications of financial aid arise due to the lack of focus in financial assistance for students who come from middle class families. Due to the complications of the financial aid system students from the middle class are forced to choose cheaper schools, go into debt, or enter the work force, yet prices of getting an education are only getting higher. For middle class families options to pay for school are very limited, without financial aid or the funds to pay, a life of debt and worry surely waits.…

    • 1808 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Unfortunately, the American Dream has slowly faded due to many factors. According to the Pew Research Center, in 1971, 61% of Americans were considered to be a part of the middle class. Today, the percentage has dropped rapidly to 51%, and within that, 35% are living off of $35,000 or less (Hartmann). With this in mind, the middle class is slowly shrinking while the gap between social classes widen. Because the middle class makes up the majority of the population, it is obviously not good news when a lot of Americans are slowly slipping closer to the poverty line. if the majority of the population is not doing well, the country itself as a whole is not going to be stable either. In other words, it is not the American Dream. In addition to the middle class shrinkage, pessimism in America has risen, and the hope for the American Dream has fallen. In the late 1990s and the early 2000s, Americans were optimistic about the dream because…

    • 801 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The economic inequality is increasing and it has weakened neighborhoods and families that are unfortunate. People who have low income cannot afford to have a high education. Technology has changed employees, shifts for single-parent families, and produced growing income gaps between families and neighborhoods. “In addition to growing differences in the resources spent by poor and rich families on their children, declining real incomes for love-income families have affected maternal stress, mental health, and parenting” (Duncan and Murnane 8). Families are in poverty and we should fix this problem in order to prevent the increasing of economic. Income inequality is increasing for a lot of people in the United States. Not everyone can afford higher education, and paying for college can cause people to go into debt. Because of the declining value of a high school diploma, having a college education is more necessary than ever to help reduce income inequality. Being better educated would help people acquire higher levels of skill and then could provide…

    • 1234 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Is the American dream achievable today?Of course, it is but keep I almost always success and prosperity is built on foundations of hard times and even harder work.Here are just a few stories to prove my point; Casey Neistat dropped out at Ledyard High School in the 10th grade at age 16 and did not return to school or graduate.becasue of a pregnant girlfriend…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Therefore, the American dream is still universally available for anyone to achieve today, it’s possible to achieve because it has been done many times, we live in a free country and anything is possible with hard work. Many people have already achieved the American dream so it’s not impossible. Anything is also possible if one is willing to work hard for it. All in all, people who really want the American dream will get…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays