Robert Merton's Anomie Theory: The American Dream Today
Jenn P.
The American Dream Today
“The extreme emphasis upon the accumulation of wealth as a symbol of success in our society militates against the completely effective control of institutionally regulated modes of acquiring a fortune” (Merton). Have you ever looked around and noticed how much we emphasize money? Money controls so much of the American Dream that is causing a problem. Americans believe the amount of money you have is the end all be all in life and they are willing to do almost anything to gain it. The American Dream has deviated from the original meaning to mold to society today and the desire to constantly want more money. Money has been placed on a pedestal in the United States and because of this the American Dream has become …show more content…
heavily dependent on monetary success. In the past, the American Dream was about overcoming the Great Depression and working hard as a country to build back up our country. The term “American Dream” came about during the Great Depression. The citizens of the United States needed something to encourage them to keep pushing forward. People began to live by this rule that James Truslow Adams described as a “better, deeper, richer life for every individual regardless of the position in society…” from which someone was born and for the chance to “develop our capacities to the full, unhampered by unjust restrictions of caste or custom” (Samuel 13). The Dream was viewed as something that could pull the nation through the tough times so that it could still come out on top. Although Adams heavily believed in the American Dream, he also argued that the dream’s “guiding philosophy [had been] forgotten in the wild pursuit of money and things that it could buy” and he believed the Great Depression would put America back on the right track (Samuel 13). This early definition of the American Dream was used to get through the depression and later on it was used to get through the war. People were going to work hard to show other nations that no matter what happens in America the citizens will pull together and they will succeed. Other countries idolized this term because up to the war the majority of the Dream’s promise had been kept. The Dream had lived “up to both the challenges and the opportunities afforded by the revolutionary idea of social equality” (Samuel 35).
Today, the American Dream places a huge emphasis on monetary success. The American Dream has drifted from it’s original purpose of coming together and working hard to beat the odds to one that is all about getting more. The new version of the American Dream was inspired in the 1980s and the 1990s. This version of the dream emphasized more. People began to believe that no matter what they had acquired it was never enough. The Dream that got our nation through so many different struggles became greedy and individualized. The American Dream has evolved and not in a positive way. It has become “more individualistic, expansive, and morally perverted” than the original Dream (Derber 13). People were beginning to do anything to reach the high life. Hedrick Smith’s book, Who Stole the AMerican Dream, mentions example after example of “the corporate world and the government realm of profiteers and policymakers who care about themselves and their wealthy cronies, not about the citizenry at large” (Weinberg). The major corporations will go to any length to stay on top. In their eyes, the money that they keep making proves that they are successful and in order to keep the title they must make more money. With the new American Dream, a person needs to have money to prove they are successful. And this problem is not only among adults. Anthropologist Philippe Bourgois spent five years living in an East Harlem tenement in order to study the minds of crack dealers. Bourgois concluded that “ambitious, energetic inner-city youth are attracted to the underground [drug dealing] economy precisely because they believe in the rags-to-riches American Dream” (qtd in Derber). The new version of the American Dream has even reached the youth. Young people are now willing to do anything to get that higher status and more money so they can be considered successful. The new American Dream is out of control. People should be working hard and legitimately to achieve the goals they set and whether or not they reach those goals is whether or not they are successful. People are only listening to what society has to say when in reality everyone has a different point at which they should be considered successful. The American Dream, today, places monetary success on a pedestal and it is causing people to use illegitimate means in order to be “successful.”
Robert Merton 's Anomie theory argues that the heavy emphasis on money is what has caused the United States crime rate to be higher compared to other societies.
First written about in the 1940s, Robert Merton theorized that the United States places a relatively strong emphasis on the goal of monetary success and a weak emphasis on the legitimate norms for achieving this goal. He believed that people would go to any length to achieve monetary success. Indicating that people would go so far as to commit crimes. People are pressured by society to reach this goal which is usually based on a monetary success. If they do not reach this set goal they will be categorized as quitters (University of Minnesota). The United States places the same kind of success on all it’s citizen regardless of race, ethnic, and class stratification even though these limit “the opportunities for success by those in the less privileged groups” (University of Minnesota). Merton’s theory coincides the most with his form of adaptation known as the “innovator.” An “‘innovator’ accepts the goals of society but pursues them with means that are regarded as improper” (Witt). Innovators are the people who break laws in order to reach the successful goals that are set by society. Merton’s theory still applies to the United States today because people still feel that if they do not have a large sum of money then they will be considered a failure to society, thus making people commit crime to get there. The strong emphasis on monetary success and the weak emphasis on how to gain it is the reason crime rates in the United States are higher compared with other
societies.
White collar crime is a great example of how the American Dream is controlled by the constant need for more. White collar crime is when someone uses their “position of economic power, influence, or trust in the legitimate economic or political institutional order for the purpose of illegal gain or to commit an illegal act for personal or organizational gain” (Klutz 50). Over the past five years, there has been a rise in white collar crime. According to the Justice Department, the United States government reported 561 white collar crime prosecutions. In the past 5 years, there has been a 5.0 percent increase in white collar prosecutions including Magistrate court (TracReports). Today, the largest white collar scandal is the LIBOR scandal. The scandal includes major banks throughout the world. These banks are falsely inflating and deflating their rates in order to make more money. On March 14, 2014, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation sued 16 megabanks, including U.S. based banks Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup, for allegedly manipulating the London interbank offered rate, or LIBOR (National Association of Federal Credit Unions). People do not care about the consequences these kind of scandals make as long as they are making a profit off of it. The LIBOR scandal has been estimated to have affected $300-$900 trillion in global derivatives. The LIBOR scandal is only one of many example that money has become too important in order to be successful and to be living the American Dream.
The constant need for more money also extends to educational institutions. Educational institutions, such as the University of Alabama, are always trying to make more money to add more building so that they can be the biggest and best universities. In 2013, the University of Alabama football team brought in a net profit of $47,102,381, the tuition cost was voted on and past to increase next year by 2.7 percent for in-state students and 4.4 percent for out-state students per semester, and parking has been estimated to have made a profit of over $2 million (The Crimson White). Football is probably the universities biggest money maker. The school makes money off of tickets, concessions, and merchandise, which includes jerseys with certain players’ numbers on them. With that being said, the university is making money off of their student athletes while also increasing tuition. If the football team’s revenue is increasing almost every year then why is it necessary to continue to increase tuition? The university already has so much money why do they need to accumulate more? Because they are stuck in the mentality that more money equals more success. The University of Alabama is basking in the new version of the American Dream. The university is even making a couple million on parking tickets alone. In 2013, there were 4,863 permits issued for the Red Commuter Northeast zone, but there are only 2,978 spaces available in that area (McWhorter). The university is well aware of this, yet they proceed to sell more passes than spots because they make a large profit off of parking permits. Not to mention that this turbocool leads to people illegally parking which leads to issuing citations which leads to even more money for the Department of Transportation Services. The university is on a constant head swivel in order to find new ways to bring more money into the school. Whether the school is far into the black or not, there will always be discussion on how to bring in more money. The emphasis on monetary success does not stop at individuals. This new American Dream of wanting more is also affecting educational institutions.
In the 1940s, Robert Merton told the world that a high emphasis on monetary success would be harmful to society. He was right at the time and his Anomie theory is still relevant today. With people in the United States placing money on a pedestal, the American Dream has moved away from working hard and making money to making money with any means necessary. People witness this with the increase in tuition and the increase in white collar crimes among other things. People do not worry about who they are negatively affecting. They only worry about how much bigger their wallet is getting. The meaning of the American Dream has changed over the years and not for the better. Money is placed too high up on a pedestal and because of this the American Dream is depending more than it should on monetary success.
Works Cited
Cissell, Jordan. "The Profit of the Process." The Crimson White. The Crimson White, 25 Nov. 2013.Web. 23 Mar. 2014. <http://cw.ua.edu/2013/11/25/the-profit-of-the-process/>.
Derber C. The Wilding Of America : How Greed And Violence Are Eroding Our Nation 's Character / Charles Derber [e-book]. New York : St. Martin 's Press, c1996.; 1996. Available from: University of Alabama Libraries’ Classic Catalog, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 23, 2014.
“FDIC Sues 16 Megabanks Over Libor.” States News Service 18 Mar. 2014. Academic OneFile. Web. 20 Mar. 2014
Klutz, Douglas, and Mark M. Lanier, eds. From the Crime to the Courts: An Overview of Criminology and Criminal Justice. San Diego: Cognella, 2013. Print.
Locklar, Alyssa. "University Collects Millions from Parking Tickets." The Crimson White. The Crimson White, 1 Mar. 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. <http://cw.ua.edu/2012/03/01/university-collects-millions-from-parking-tickets/>.
McWhorter, Andy. "Parking Permits Sold Can Exceed Total Spaces." The Crimson White. The
Crimson White, 5 June 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. <http://cw.ua.edu/2013/06/05/parking-permits-sold-can-exceed-total-spaces/>.
Owen, Katherine. "UA Board of Trustees Approves Campus Expansion, New Programs, Tuition Increase." The Crimson White. The Crimson White, 14 June 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. <http://cw.ua.edu/2013/06/14/ua-board-of-trustees-approves-campus-expansion-new-progrms-tuition-increase/>.
Samuel L. The American Dream : A Cultural History / Lawrence R. Samuel [e-book]. Syracuse : Syracuse University Press, 2012.; 2012. Available from: University of Alabama Libraries’ Classic Catalog, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 23, 2014.
University of Minnesota. "Anomie." Anomie. Www.d.umn.edu, n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2014. <https://www.d.umn.edu/~bmork/2306/Theories/BAManomie.htm>.
Weinberg, Steve. " 'American Dream ' a victim of GREED?" USA Today 15 Oct. 2012: 05B. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
"White Collar Crime Prosecutions for January 2014." White Collar Crime Prosecutions for January 2014. Ed. TRACReports. Http://trac.syr.edu/, 17 Mar. 2014. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. <http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/bulletins/white_collar_crime/monthlyjan14/fil/>.
Witt. "Chapter 6: Deviance." Introduction to Sociology. N.p.: McGraw Hill Companies, 2013. 143-44. Print.
The American Dream Today
“The extreme emphasis upon the accumulation of wealth as a symbol of success in our society militates against the completely effective control of institutionally regulated modes of acquiring a fortune” (Merton). Have you ever looked around and noticed how much we emphasize money? Money controls so much of the American Dream that is causing a problem. Americans believe the amount of money you have is the end all be all in life and they are willing to do almost anything to gain it. The American Dream has deviated from the original meaning to mold to society today and the desire to constantly want more money. Money has been placed on a pedestal in the United States and because of this the American Dream has become …show more content…
heavily dependent on monetary success. In the past, the American Dream was about overcoming the Great Depression and working hard as a country to build back up our country. The term “American Dream” came about during the Great Depression. The citizens of the United States needed something to encourage them to keep pushing forward. People began to live by this rule that James Truslow Adams described as a “better, deeper, richer life for every individual regardless of the position in society…” from which someone was born and for the chance to “develop our capacities to the full, unhampered by unjust restrictions of caste or custom” (Samuel 13). The Dream was viewed as something that could pull the nation through the tough times so that it could still come out on top. Although Adams heavily believed in the American Dream, he also argued that the dream’s “guiding philosophy [had been] forgotten in the wild pursuit of money and things that it could buy” and he believed the Great Depression would put America back on the right track (Samuel 13). This early definition of the American Dream was used to get through the depression and later on it was used to get through the war. People were going to work hard to show other nations that no matter what happens in America the citizens will pull together and they will succeed. Other countries idolized this term because up to the war the majority of the Dream’s promise had been kept. The Dream had lived “up to both the challenges and the opportunities afforded by the revolutionary idea of social equality” (Samuel 35).
Today, the American Dream places a huge emphasis on monetary success. The American Dream has drifted from it’s original purpose of coming together and working hard to beat the odds to one that is all about getting more. The new version of the American Dream was inspired in the 1980s and the 1990s. This version of the dream emphasized more. People began to believe that no matter what they had acquired it was never enough. The Dream that got our nation through so many different struggles became greedy and individualized. The American Dream has evolved and not in a positive way. It has become “more individualistic, expansive, and morally perverted” than the original Dream (Derber 13). People were beginning to do anything to reach the high life. Hedrick Smith’s book, Who Stole the AMerican Dream, mentions example after example of “the corporate world and the government realm of profiteers and policymakers who care about themselves and their wealthy cronies, not about the citizenry at large” (Weinberg). The major corporations will go to any length to stay on top. In their eyes, the money that they keep making proves that they are successful and in order to keep the title they must make more money. With the new American Dream, a person needs to have money to prove they are successful. And this problem is not only among adults. Anthropologist Philippe Bourgois spent five years living in an East Harlem tenement in order to study the minds of crack dealers. Bourgois concluded that “ambitious, energetic inner-city youth are attracted to the underground [drug dealing] economy precisely because they believe in the rags-to-riches American Dream” (qtd in Derber). The new version of the American Dream has even reached the youth. Young people are now willing to do anything to get that higher status and more money so they can be considered successful. The new American Dream is out of control. People should be working hard and legitimately to achieve the goals they set and whether or not they reach those goals is whether or not they are successful. People are only listening to what society has to say when in reality everyone has a different point at which they should be considered successful. The American Dream, today, places monetary success on a pedestal and it is causing people to use illegitimate means in order to be “successful.”
Robert Merton 's Anomie theory argues that the heavy emphasis on money is what has caused the United States crime rate to be higher compared to other societies.
First written about in the 1940s, Robert Merton theorized that the United States places a relatively strong emphasis on the goal of monetary success and a weak emphasis on the legitimate norms for achieving this goal. He believed that people would go to any length to achieve monetary success. Indicating that people would go so far as to commit crimes. People are pressured by society to reach this goal which is usually based on a monetary success. If they do not reach this set goal they will be categorized as quitters (University of Minnesota). The United States places the same kind of success on all it’s citizen regardless of race, ethnic, and class stratification even though these limit “the opportunities for success by those in the less privileged groups” (University of Minnesota). Merton’s theory coincides the most with his form of adaptation known as the “innovator.” An “‘innovator’ accepts the goals of society but pursues them with means that are regarded as improper” (Witt). Innovators are the people who break laws in order to reach the successful goals that are set by society. Merton’s theory still applies to the United States today because people still feel that if they do not have a large sum of money then they will be considered a failure to society, thus making people commit crime to get there. The strong emphasis on monetary success and the weak emphasis on how to gain it is the reason crime rates in the United States are higher compared with other
societies.
White collar crime is a great example of how the American Dream is controlled by the constant need for more. White collar crime is when someone uses their “position of economic power, influence, or trust in the legitimate economic or political institutional order for the purpose of illegal gain or to commit an illegal act for personal or organizational gain” (Klutz 50). Over the past five years, there has been a rise in white collar crime. According to the Justice Department, the United States government reported 561 white collar crime prosecutions. In the past 5 years, there has been a 5.0 percent increase in white collar prosecutions including Magistrate court (TracReports). Today, the largest white collar scandal is the LIBOR scandal. The scandal includes major banks throughout the world. These banks are falsely inflating and deflating their rates in order to make more money. On March 14, 2014, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation sued 16 megabanks, including U.S. based banks Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup, for allegedly manipulating the London interbank offered rate, or LIBOR (National Association of Federal Credit Unions). People do not care about the consequences these kind of scandals make as long as they are making a profit off of it. The LIBOR scandal has been estimated to have affected $300-$900 trillion in global derivatives. The LIBOR scandal is only one of many example that money has become too important in order to be successful and to be living the American Dream.
The constant need for more money also extends to educational institutions. Educational institutions, such as the University of Alabama, are always trying to make more money to add more building so that they can be the biggest and best universities. In 2013, the University of Alabama football team brought in a net profit of $47,102,381, the tuition cost was voted on and past to increase next year by 2.7 percent for in-state students and 4.4 percent for out-state students per semester, and parking has been estimated to have made a profit of over $2 million (The Crimson White). Football is probably the universities biggest money maker. The school makes money off of tickets, concessions, and merchandise, which includes jerseys with certain players’ numbers on them. With that being said, the university is making money off of their student athletes while also increasing tuition. If the football team’s revenue is increasing almost every year then why is it necessary to continue to increase tuition? The university already has so much money why do they need to accumulate more? Because they are stuck in the mentality that more money equals more success. The University of Alabama is basking in the new version of the American Dream. The university is even making a couple million on parking tickets alone. In 2013, there were 4,863 permits issued for the Red Commuter Northeast zone, but there are only 2,978 spaces available in that area (McWhorter). The university is well aware of this, yet they proceed to sell more passes than spots because they make a large profit off of parking permits. Not to mention that this turbocool leads to people illegally parking which leads to issuing citations which leads to even more money for the Department of Transportation Services. The university is on a constant head swivel in order to find new ways to bring more money into the school. Whether the school is far into the black or not, there will always be discussion on how to bring in more money. The emphasis on monetary success does not stop at individuals. This new American Dream of wanting more is also affecting educational institutions.
In the 1940s, Robert Merton told the world that a high emphasis on monetary success would be harmful to society. He was right at the time and his Anomie theory is still relevant today. With people in the United States placing money on a pedestal, the American Dream has moved away from working hard and making money to making money with any means necessary. People witness this with the increase in tuition and the increase in white collar crimes among other things. People do not worry about who they are negatively affecting. They only worry about how much bigger their wallet is getting. The meaning of the American Dream has changed over the years and not for the better. Money is placed too high up on a pedestal and because of this the American Dream is depending more than it should on monetary success.
Works Cited
Cissell, Jordan. "The Profit of the Process." The Crimson White. The Crimson White, 25 Nov. 2013.Web. 23 Mar. 2014. <http://cw.ua.edu/2013/11/25/the-profit-of-the-process/>.
Derber C. The Wilding Of America : How Greed And Violence Are Eroding Our Nation 's Character / Charles Derber [e-book]. New York : St. Martin 's Press, c1996.; 1996. Available from: University of Alabama Libraries’ Classic Catalog, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 23, 2014.
“FDIC Sues 16 Megabanks Over Libor.” States News Service 18 Mar. 2014. Academic OneFile. Web. 20 Mar. 2014
Klutz, Douglas, and Mark M. Lanier, eds. From the Crime to the Courts: An Overview of Criminology and Criminal Justice. San Diego: Cognella, 2013. Print.
Locklar, Alyssa. "University Collects Millions from Parking Tickets." The Crimson White. The Crimson White, 1 Mar. 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. <http://cw.ua.edu/2012/03/01/university-collects-millions-from-parking-tickets/>.
McWhorter, Andy. "Parking Permits Sold Can Exceed Total Spaces." The Crimson White. The
Crimson White, 5 June 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. <http://cw.ua.edu/2013/06/05/parking-permits-sold-can-exceed-total-spaces/>.
Owen, Katherine. "UA Board of Trustees Approves Campus Expansion, New Programs, Tuition Increase." The Crimson White. The Crimson White, 14 June 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. <http://cw.ua.edu/2013/06/14/ua-board-of-trustees-approves-campus-expansion-new-progrms-tuition-increase/>.
Samuel L. The American Dream : A Cultural History / Lawrence R. Samuel [e-book]. Syracuse : Syracuse University Press, 2012.; 2012. Available from: University of Alabama Libraries’ Classic Catalog, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 23, 2014.
University of Minnesota. "Anomie." Anomie. Www.d.umn.edu, n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2014. <https://www.d.umn.edu/~bmork/2306/Theories/BAManomie.htm>.
Weinberg, Steve. " 'American Dream ' a victim of GREED?" USA Today 15 Oct. 2012: 05B. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
"White Collar Crime Prosecutions for January 2014." White Collar Crime Prosecutions for January 2014. Ed. TRACReports. Http://trac.syr.edu/, 17 Mar. 2014. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. <http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/bulletins/white_collar_crime/monthlyjan14/fil/>.
Witt. "Chapter 6: Deviance." Introduction to Sociology. N.p.: McGraw Hill Companies, 2013. 143-44. Print.