American Escapists: What does the "American Dream" mean to you?

[Brawndo]

I keep hearing people on the internet and pundits on TV say that the "American Dream" is dead. Truth be told, I don't even know what that is supposed to be in present day. I'd like to think most Americans have outgrown the "Pleasantville" stereotype of the 1950s, but I might be wrong: maybe some people still want homogenous neighborhoods with white picket fences and stay-at-home wives.

 

[J. Mazarin]

I'd like to think that said "dream" is largely a product of the Baby Boomer generations' imagination. The modern iteration of what that "dream" is supposed to be, anyways.

 

[Kolby Jack]

Back when America was a growing country and people were immigrating from all over the world, America was a land of great opportunity, and thus the American Dream was born: Go to America, get success and freedom and all that good stuff. A lot of people found it, a lot didn't. That's why it was called a dream.

Idiots will tell you it's about white picket fences and suburban grill parties. They're wrong.

As for today, the American dream is largely dead. We've firmly established ourself as a country and room and tolerance for immigrants is at all-time low. This is not a bad thing. It's just a natural progression when a once young, rapidly industrializing country naturally becomes a mature, fully-industrialized one.

 

[Launcelot111]

I picture the American dream as the idea that if you have a good idea and work hard, you have a good chance of being successful no matter your background. I don't know what makes that idea uniquely American though.

 

[Luna]

Not American here, but the American dream relates to the idea that if you work hard then your fruits of labour will be rewarded. You can go from a nothing to a something.

This would have been quite a cool message in the past but these days you can do this in heaps of places. There's no difference between the USA and, say, Spain, or Australia, or Finland, in that they are all lands of opportunity.


The fact that America used to be so much better economically than other countries was a source of its pride.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Speaking as an American, it's the idea that the circumstances of your birth don't matter, just how hard you work. It's also absolute hogwash. You have to have boots to pull yourself up by their straps, and all that.