THE AMERICAN DREAM?

Historically, the United States has been viewed as "the land of opportunity," attracting immigrants
from all over the world. The opportunities they believed they would find in America and the
experiences they actually had when they arrived nurtured this set of values. In this chapter, we
will examine six basic values that have become "traditional" American values. Three represent
traditional reasons why immigrants have been drawn to America: the chance for individual freedom,
equality of opportunity, and material wealth. In order to achieve these benefits, however, there
were prices to be paid: self-reliance, competition, and hard work, in time, these prices themselves
became a part of the traditional value system.


Individual Freedom and Self-Reliance

The earliest settlers came to the North American continent to establish colonies that were free
from the controls that existed in European societies. They wanted to escape the controls placed on
their lives by kings and governments, priests and churches, noblemen and aristocrats. To a great
extent, they succeeded. In 1776, the British colonial settlers declared their independence from
England and established a new nation, the United States of America.

The United States came to be associated in their minds with the concept of individual freedom. This
is probably the most basic of all the American values. Scholars and outside observers often call
this valueindividualism, but many Americans use the word freedom. Perhaps the word freedom is one
of the most respected popular words in the United Stales today.

By freedom, Americans mean the desire and the ability of all individuals to control their own
destiny without outside interference from the government, a ruling noble class, the church, or any
other organized authority. The desire to be free of controls was a basic value of the new nation in
1776, and it has continued to attract immigrants to this country.

There is, however, a price to be paid for this individual freedom: self-reliance. Individuals must
learn to rely on themselves or risk losing freedom. This means achieving both financial and
emotional independence from their parents as early as possible, usually by age 18 or 21. It means
that Americans believe they should take care of themselves, solve their own problems, and "stand on
their own two feet." De Tocqueville observed the Americans' belief in self-reliance nearly 200
years ago in the 1830s:

They owe nothing to any man, they expect nothing from any man; they acquire the habit of always
considering themselves as standing alone, and they are apt to imagine that their whole destiny is
in their own hands.

This strong belief in self-reliance continues today as a traditional basic American value. It is
perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of the American character to understand, but it is
profoundly important. Most Americans believe that they must be self-reliant in order to keep their
freedom. If they rely too much on the support of their families or the government or any
organization, they may lose some of their freedom to do what they want.

If people are dependent, they risk losing freedom as well as the respect of their peers. Even if
they are not truly self-reliant, most Americans believe they must at least appear to be so. In
order to be in the mainstream of American life—to have power and/or respect—individuals must be
seen as self-reliant. Although receiving financial support from charity, family, or the government
is allowed, it is never admired.


Equality of Opportunity and Competition

The second important reason why immigrants have traditionally been drawn to the United States is
the belief that everyone has a chance to succeed here. Generations of immigrants, from the earliest
settlers to the present day, have come to the United States with this expectation. They have felt
that because individuals are free from excessive political, religious, and social controls, they
have a better chance for personal success. Of particular importance is the lack of a hereditary
aristocracy.

Because titles of nobility were forbidden in the Constitution, no formal class system developed in
the United States. In the early years of American history, many immigrants chose to leave the older
European societies because they believed that they had a better chance to succeed in America. In
"the old country," their place in life was determined largely by the social class into which they
were born. They knew that in America they would not have to live among noble families who possessed
great power and wealth inherited and accumulated over hundreds of years.

Because millions of these immigrants succeeded, Americans came to believe in equality of
opportunity. When de Tocqueville visited the United States in the 1830s, he was impressed by the
great uniformity of conditions of life in the new nation. He wrote:

The more I advanced in the study of American society, the more I perceived that... equality of
condition is the fundamental fact from which all others seem to be derived.

It is important to understand what most Americans mean when they say they believe in equality of
opportunity. They do not mean that everyone is—or should be—equal. However, they do mean that each
individual should have an equal chance for success. Americans see much of life as a race for
success. For them, equality means that everyone should have an equal chance to enter the race and
win. In other words, equality of opportunity may be thought of as an ethical rule. It helps ensure
that the race for success is a fair one and that a person does not win just because he or she was
born into a wealthy family, or lose because of race or religion. This American concept of "fair
play" is an important aspect of the belief in equality of opportunity. President Abraham Lincoln
expressed this belief in the 1860s when he said:

We... wish to allow the humblest man an equal chance to get rich with everybody else. When one
starts poor, as most do in the race of life, free society is such that he knows he can better his
condition; he knows that there is no fixed condition of labor for his whole life.

There is, however, a price to be paid for this equality of opportunity: competition. If much of
life is seen as a race, then a person must run the race in order to succeed; a person must compete
with others. If every person has an equal chance to succeed in the United States, then it is every
person's duty to try. Americans match their energy and intelligence against that of others in a
competitive contest for success.

The pressure to compete causes Americans to be energetic, but it also places a constant emotional
strain on them. When they retire (traditionally at age 65), they are at last free from the
pressures of competition. But then a new problem arises. They may feel useless and unwanted in a
society that gives so much prestige to those who compete well. This is one reason why older people
in the United States do not have as much honor and respect as they have in other, less competitive
societies. In fact, any group of people who do not compete successfully—for whatever reason—do not
fit into the mainstream of American life as well as those who do compete.


Material Wealth and Hard Work

The third reason why immigrants have traditionally come to the United States is to have a better
life—that is, to raise their standard of living. For the vast majority of the immigrants who came
here, it was probably the most compelling reason for leaving their homeland. Because of its
incredibly abundant natural resources, the United States appeared to be a "land of plenty" where
millions could come to seek their fortunes. Of course, most immigrants did not "get rich
overnight," and many of them suffered terribly, but the majority of them were eventually able to
improve upon their former standard of living. Even if they were not able to achieve the economic
success they wanted, they could be fairly certain that their children would have the opportunity
for a better life. The phrase "going from rags to riches" became a slogan for the great American
Dream. Because of the vast riches of the North American continent, the dream came true for many of
the immigrants. They achieved material success; they became very attached to material
things. Material wealth became a value to the American people.

Probably the main reason is that material wealth has traditionally been a widely accepted measure
of social status in the United States. Because Americans rejected the European system of hereditary
aristocracy and titles of nobility, they had to find a substitute for judging social status. The
quality and quantity of an individual's material possessions became an accepted measure of success
and social status. Moreover, as we shall see in later chapters, the Puritan work ethic associated
material success with godliness.

Americans have paid a price, however, for their material wealth: hard work. The North American
continent was rich in natural resources when the first settlers arrived, but all these resources
were undeveloped. Only by hard work could these natural resources be converted into material
possessions, allowing a more comfortable standard of living. Hard work has been both necessary and
rewarding for most Americans throughout their history. Because of this, they came to see material
possessions as the natural reward for their hard work. In some ways, material possessions were seen
not only as tangible evidence of people's work but also of their abilities. In the late 1700s,
James Madison, the father of the American Constitution, stated that the difference in material
possessions reflected a difference in personal abilities.

As the United States has shifted from an industry-based economy to one that is service or
information-based, there has been a decline in high-paying jobs for factory workers. It is now much
more difficult for the average worker to go "from rags to riches" in the United States, and many
wonder what has happened to the traditional "American Dream." As the United States competes in a
global economy, many worker, are losing their old jobs and finding that they and their family
members must now work longer hours for less money and fewer benefits. Faced with a decline in their
standard of living, these people no longer believe that hard work necessarily brings great material
rewards.

In understanding the relationship between what Americans believe and how they live, it is important
to distinguish between idealism and reality. American values such as equality of opportunity and
self-reliance are ideals that may not necessarily describe the reality of American life. Equality
of opportunity, for example, is an ideal that is not always put into practice. In reality, some
people have a better chance for success than others. Those who are born into rich families have
more opportunities than those who are born into poorer families. Inheriting money does give a
person a decided advantage. Many black

Americans have fewer opportunities than the average white American, and many women have fewer
opportunities than men, in spite of laws designed to promote equality of opportunity for all
individuals. And many immigrants today have fewer opportunities than those who came before them,
when there were more high-paying factory jobs, and the economy was growing more rapidly.

The fact that American ideals are only partly carried out in real life does not diminish their
importance. Many Americans still believe in them and arc strongly affected by them in their
everyday lives. It is easier to understand what Americans are thinking and feeling if we can
understand what these basic traditional American values are and how they have influenced almost
every facet of life in the United States.


FROM US SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS

In America today, the top 1 percent owns 38 percent of our country’s financial wealth. The bottom
60 percent owns 2.3 percent. The increasing wealth inequality in the United States has become the
great moral issue of our time.
In America today, one family, the Walton family of Wal-Mart, owns more wealth than the bottom 40
percent, and the top 400 individuals have more wealth than the bottom half of our country -- over
150 million people.
In terms of income, the top 1 percent earns more than the bottom 50 percent, while the wealthiest
16,000 Americans, who make more than $10 million a year (the top 0.01 percent), saw their income
increase by nearly a third between 2011 and 2012.
According to a recent study, from 2009 to 2012, 95 percent of all new income went to the top 1
percent. Meanwhile, since 1999, median family income declined by more than $5,000 after adjusting
for inflation.
Today, a record-breaking 46.5 million people live in poverty in the United States. At 21.8 percent,
we have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world. One out of four of our
kids now lives in a family that receives food stamps.
Poverty among seniors is growing. Over 9 percent of seniors lived in poverty in 2012, higher than
in 2009. More American seniors were living in poverty last year than in 1972.
In recent years, while median family income has declined and poverty has increased, the number of
millionaires and billionaires has grown at an extraordinary rate. In 1996, there were 121
billionaires in America. Today, there are 442“.