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How Does The American Dream Affect Society

1413 Words6 Pages

The American Dream is an individualistic idea that avows that anyone can become successful, and achieve a happy, comfortable life no matter where they came from, so long as they work hard. Many people argue whether the American Dream is alive and prospering or dead and gone in this day and age. I believe that the American Dream lives, but that it has not positively impacted our society. The American Dream has existed in this country since it was first founded, but as it has aged it has become heavily rooted in consumerism and greed. The dream has slowly, and sometimes not so slowly, developed into an idea that promotes an unhealthy materialistic lifestyle. The lifestyle it promotes isn’t plausible for the average American, it damages the environment, and feeds an economic system that convinces the consumer that things will make them happy. This is why the dream needs to fade out of our mainstream society and create a new idea, or dream, that has changed completely from the acquisitive, money-oriented ways of the original dream. …show more content…

What many people don’t realize is how much it actually costs to live that way and that to keep it up it “requires unlimited supplies of cheap and free resources to keep going” (Atlee, 1990). Families in other countries and even here in America struggle and fail to keep up with the financial price that the dream entails. Especially recently, the cost of living in America has steadily increased, while average household income has not changed, which means families have less and less extra money for the “luxuries” that accompany the American Dream. Furthermore, “the prices of certain key goods […] have gone up faster than income” (Meacham, 2012). The original dream promoted such a high level of material acquisition, that it is nearly impossible to fully live up to the expectations cast upon our

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