Barriers To The American Dream Essay

The American Dream is a staple in American ideology. And was coined by the author of Epic of America, James Truslow Adams. He described it as "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement." Everyone can achieve the American Dream. But that may not all be true, as factors may block those trying to achieve their idea of the dream. Education, language, and poverty are examples of barriers that impact the American Dream today. Education along with its costs impacts the American Dream today by degrading its students with debt that may haunt them for years to come. Melanie Hanson from educationdata.org says that the average cost of any 4-year

(Guyer) With language barriers being a rising theme in the American Dream some people are left hopeless. Immigrants coming to the U.S. might not be getting all the help they truly need. Most incoming immigrants do not speak any English causing them to be hopeless. An obvious argument against this is to have immigrants seek a translator. Now it may be helpful when an immigrant is at a hospital or a police station. They are not gonna by their side 24/7. Most people struggle with language barriers in their everyday life. Getting things in the mail that may be important like hospital bills or taxes are hard for people because of them not knowing English and everything on these documents will be in English. Language barriers can happen everywhere we go. For migrants in the U.S. it makes their life even more difficult, this causes trouble for those who want to take part in their own American Dream. Poverty in the United States has become an increasing problem and has a detrimental effect on the American Dream. Due to America's portrayal as an influential superpower state, many would be surprised to hear that 1/6 of Americans don’t have enough food to eat. Perhaps this is a relatively unknown fact due to the stigma around poverty and the desire to appear successful leads people to struggle in silence. (Egginton). Since the beginning of the 21st century, the United States has had a prevailing problem with inequality. This is an obvious problem with the idealogy of the American Dream. With the rise of consumerism, materialism, people are tending to get more greedy which adds to the phrase, “The rich get richer”. Some may say that if you are living in poverty. Why not go out and get the resources you need to help dig yourself out of the hole you created? Or just go get yourself a job. Those resources may come at a cost. So it would be logical to get a job. Unless the stars align perfectly some people