The American Dream in the 21st Century

CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION The American Dream Where Are We? Where Are We? Sandra L. Hanson John Kenneth White T HE AMERICAN DREAM has been a dominant theme in U.S. culture from the very beginning. But these are difficult times for Dreamers. Large numbers of Americans are unemployed, living in poverty, and without health care insurance. Jim Cullen (2003) and others (Ho 2007; Johnson 2006; Moen and Roehling 2005; Shapiro 2004) have suggested that the American Dream and this “glue” that binds us together may be unraveling, as we see a growing wealth gap, ongoing race inequality, an expanding poor immigrant population, and continued sexism in all aspects of American life. Perhaps the twenty-first century is not a time of increasing progress toward the American Dream. And middle-class Americans are not being spared. Downsizing and restructuring are here to stay as jobs go to cheaper markets. The growing distress across socioeconomic groups is a trend that began before the recent economic downturn and will most likely continue (Ehrenreich 2005). Public-opinion polls show that most Americans think that hard work alone affects one’s ability to achieve the American Dream— suggesting that those who do not get ahead are somehow at fault (Hanson and Zogby forthcoming). Some have speculated that America has lost its way as well as its legacy of core values of economic and social justice (Kochan 2005). Is the American Dream so much a part of the fabric of American society that we fail to question it—regardless of whether we have full access to it (Johnson 2006)? Our goal was to examine how the American Dream is doing in the twenty-first century given these historic social and economic conditions. 142 ■ Sandra L. Hanson and John Kenneth White The authors discuss the history of the American Dream and its enduring significance in American life. They discuss the complexity of the Dream and its intersection with politics, religion, race, gender, and generation. The conclusions that the authors draw provide optimism about the faith that most Americans have regarding the possibility of achieving the American Dream as well as a realistic assessment of the cracks in the Dream that exist for women and minorities but also an increasing number of Americans across race, gender, and social-class groups. The authors provide evidence of a new hope for the Dream with the election of President Barack Obama. They also provide warnings on the need for better programs and policies that would make the Dream a reality for a larger number of Americans. What are the key conclusions and recommendations regarding the American Dream in the twenty-first century from the point of view provided by an interdisciplinary group of scholars ? And what are these scholars’ thoughts on the influence that President Obama has had on the American Dream? Cullen (Chapter 1) suggests that the first decade of the twenty-first century has not been a particularly good one in American life. He argues that imperial overstretch in Iraq, indebtedness at home and abroad, and political corruption in the electoral process have created anxieties that our system of government and way of life may be breaking down. It is widely believed that the American Dream is the product of a historically unique exceptionalism, which is rooted in a particular location and political structure codified in the Declaration of Independence. In fact, Cullen argues that many of the most cherished aspects of the American Dream, such as upward mobility, have clear antecedents in other civilizations . Moreover, the American Dream as it developed preceded the creation of the United States and has survived its transformation from a de jure republic to a de facto empire under the current leadership of Obama, whose political appeal is in no small measure a perception of the degree to which he embodies the American Dream. Cullen concludes that, culturally democratic, the Dream is likely to survive the demise of that empire and suggests that it is worth considering what our lives would be like without it as a means of understanding where we currently stand. Michael Kimmage considers the politics of the American Dream over the past few decades in Chapter 2. His chapter begins with a distinction regarding the American Dream. There is the material reality of the American Dream, the actual state of the economy, and the actual The American Dream ■ 143 prospect for social advancements. Then there is the Dream itself, the hope that one will advance. Kimmage then applies this distinction to...