Making The American Dream In Nickel And Dimed

Making the American Dream Possible

The American Dream is attainable by each and every one of us. The American Dream is the idea that everyone should have an equal opportunity to achieve success through hard work and determination. Every successful person living today had to work hard for their position. They climb the ranks until they got to where they stand today. Everyone could become successful and live the American dream as long as they work very hard starting at a young age into adulthood and study and perform well in school. They must study for school and get a good education. In the book “Nickel and Dimed”, Barbara is struggling to get along because she is surviving off jobs that require little to no education and experience.

Imagine

if everyone who desired success worked as hard as they wanted it. America’s economy would strive and appear higher compared to other countries worldwide. One can’t expect to become a millionaire without even finishing high school. Everything in life is proportional. One will get as much as one puts in. If someone works and studies hard he will become very good at his profession and move up the social ladder. Paul Hsu says, “I came to over to this great country from Taiwan in 1976 and my 40 years experience is living proof that America is truly a land of opportunity” (Hsu 1). He immigrated to the U.S with only 500 dollars in his pocket. He struggled for a while but today, as a result of his hard work owns many businesses and is a multi-millionaire. The money doesn’t just poof in his pockets. He had to work very hard and productively for his money.
In the book, Barbara seems to have a different opinion about the rich and successful.

While she was working the minimum wage life she would talk about the rich as selfish people who struck luck and got all their money that way. She says, “ Since the rich have become more numerous, thanks largely to rising stock prices and executive salaries” (Ehrenreich 109). She explains that the rich are becoming more numerous as a result of stocks and executive salaries growing. The New York Times says, "Data Reveal a Rise in College Degrees Among Americans” (Rampell 1). The article says that more and more Americans are earning college degrees over the years. This is the reason why the successful are

expanding.
Barbara also says, “I grew up hearing over and over, to the point of tedium, that "hard work" was the secret of success: No one ever said that you could work hard - harder even than you ever thought possible - and still find yourself sinking ever deeper into poverty and debt” (Ehrenreich 120). There is a solution to most cases of poverty. One pre-solution is to never get to that stage. Get a good education and as a result, a good job from the start. The reason Barbara and many low wage workers worked so hard without result was because they worked without purpose. If they would've started studying again for a degree instead of repeating the same unsuccessful action every month they might’ve found themselves earning good money within a year or two. The rich shouldn’t look down upon the poor the same way the poor shouldn’t scorn the rich. They both worked very hard just in different ways.
The American Dream is achievable by whoever works hard enough for it and puts purpose into his work.

It is much harder to exit poverty once one is inside, but that doesn’t mean that he has to give up and stay there. The book says, “They (lower class) are bound to tire of getting so little in return and to demand to be paid what they're worth. There'll be a lot of anger when that day comes, and strikes and disruption. But the sky will not fall, and we will all be better off for it in the end” (Ehrenreich 120). This shows that the lower class work very hard. Some of those people might be at the top of the social chain in a couple of years if they find the right path. People should always be striving to fly up the social ladder. People should do whatever it takes, no matter how much work and effort it

needs.