The American Dream: More Difficult Now than Ever

Many people have their own American Dream which has become their driving force and center of their life. However, not everyone can achieve their American Dream; it depends on many factors, such as income inequality, unstable social-welfare system, and different races. Based on the situation, Paul Krugman, the economic teacher at Princeton and the winner of Economics of the Nobel Prize in 2008, Tamara Draut, the director of the Economic Opportunity Program at Demos, and The Economist, a London-based weekly publication that is read by business, political and financial decision makers, all of them state a common point that it is harder and harder for people to achieve the American Dream now.

The American Dream was not founded based on a person’s wealth. It means achieving a better life based on the merits of a person’s thrift, hard work, intelligence and contribution to the community of all Americans. In other words, the American dream is defined that people can change the standard of their living through their own effort. At the first view, the American Dream seems easy to achieve, but the changing in economics and some other factors such as income, social security and race become barriers on the way to achieve the American Dream. But not everyone notice these problems.

There are many people feel that it is easy to achieve their American Dream because they are living in a wealthy family or have a well-paid job. They think the American Dream is easy for them to achieve because they can “afford the $17,000 watch, $160,000 coat, and $10 million helicopter” (310), therefore, it seems no barriers to achieve the American Dream. In reality, people living in middle class or working class are the majority in America, and they have to face ...

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...omic status is a major barrier that prevents many Asian Americans from receiving health insurance. Asian Americans often lack the necessary skills, including language proficiency, to find jobs that offer health insurance. At the same time, they cannot afford private health insurance or they are not eligible for Medicaid. The aging Asian American populations also lack health insurance. Many seniors live in substandard housing, and have little or no health insurance and limited transportation to healthcare services.

In conclusion, the American Dream is hard to achieve because many factors such as income inequality, race, and socio-economic status. Income inequality is the first barrier on the path to achieve the American Dream. Additionally, race and socio-economic status are all the barriers need to be overcome. In one word, it is hard to achieve the American Dream.