For many years, Americans have believed if they work hard it’s possible to start out poor and become rich. However, has that changed over these years?
During the Great Recession, there’s a significant change in the definition of the American Dream comparing to four years ago. According to the poll done by the Times and CBS News, four years ago, 19 percent believed that the American Dream is related to financial and job while 20 percent thought it was related to freedom and opportunity. However, during the recession, less people thought it was related to financial and job while more thought it was related to freedom and opportunity. Despite the change of the definition, people still believe in American Dream. Barry Glassner explained, “You want to hold on to your dream even more when times are hard.” But is the belief realistic?
During the Great Recession, there’s a significant change in the definition of the American Dream comparing to four years ago. According to the poll done by the Times and CBS News, four years ago, 19 percent believed that the American Dream is related to financial and job while 20 percent thought it was related to freedom and opportunity. However, during the recession, less people thought it was related to financial and job while more thought it was related to freedom and opportunity. Despite the change of the definition, people still believe in American Dream. Barry Glassner explained, “You want to hold on to your dream even more when times are hard.” But is the belief realistic?
U.S. has always been a wealthy country, which also promotes the idea that everyone is created equal. However, the problem of mobility and inequality exists.
According to statistics, If we divide the U.S. into five groups of people that is 20% each, Americans would like the wealth to be shared almost equally, besides the top 20% would get a bit more and the bottom 20% would get a bit less. But the fact is that the wealth distribution in U.S. is imbalanced absurdly. The top 20% gets more than 80% of the wealth while the bottom 20% barely gets anything.
According to statistics, If we divide the U.S. into five groups of people that is 20% each, Americans would like the wealth to be shared almost equally, besides the top 20% would get a bit more and the bottom 20% would get a bit less. But the fact is that the wealth distribution in U.S. is imbalanced absurdly. The top 20% gets more than 80% of the wealth while the bottom 20% barely gets anything.
Moreover, the inequality in economic can also affect the economic mobility. According to the “Great Gatsby Curve”, the high inequality is associated with less economic mobility. As we can see from the graph, U.S. already had a very high inequality and it would have even greater inequality in 2010, which means the mobility would become less and less.