American dream still burns bright for many – but results vary
Men in their 30s earn about $5,000 less in real terms than their fathers' generation did, according to a new study.
from the July 3, 2007 edition
 Revisiting the American dream |
Page 2 of 4
Less mobility in US
Overall, there is actually less economic mobility in the US than in Canada and many European countries, notes John Morton, Managing Director, Program Planning and Economic Policy, for the Pew Charitable Trusts.
But for immigrants "the economic assimilation machine is in fact still very strong," says Mr. Morton, who is helping lead a long-term Pew project on the American dream's health.
The phrase "American dream" is relatively recent. It was popularized in the 1930s by historian James Truslow Adams, who in his day was a widely read author on the major themes and figures of the nation, similar to, say, David McCullough today.
Yet the idea expressed by the phrase, that the US was a land of opportunity where generation after generation would keep doing better and better, has always been the "gyroscope of American life," writes Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson in his book "Pursuing the American Dream."
In some periods the American dream has seemed more attainable than in others, says Mr. Jillson. Most recently, it was alive and well in the era from the end of World War II through the early 1970s.
But since 1973, median family income has been essentially flat, says Jillson.
"This is one of those periods in American history when to many ... the American dream seems illusory," Jillson says.
Some polls back up this contention. In a recent CBS News survey of 17- to 29-year-olds, only 25 percent of respondents said their generation would be better off than their parents. Forty-eight percent said they would be worse off.
The American dream is "obsolete," says Adam Gandelman, a Boston bike messenger. "It's a scam."
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