The Idea of The "American Dream"

The American Dream was possible at a time, definitely at some point and time was achievable through hard work and perseverance. In this day and age, however, the American Dream is not possible. This is the case because of the history of our country and because of the people who are in charge of our country, the people who run the United States of America. The politics of our country prevent the hopeful people from achieving their “American Dream”.

The idea of the “American Dream” came about in the 1800s, when Irish and Scottish immigrants came from their homelands, looking for a better opportunity than they previously had. This was when the “American Dream” was achievable, new markets to be discovered, it was an age of innovation, and revolution, an age of change, where hard work and perseverance paid off, and immigrants from those land became big business owners. They could thrive the way that they did because the government was not regulating how big they got, they were completely Laissez-Faire. There were no government politics involved. The culture allowed this to be, and at this time in America, the Dream was possible.

This day and age is not the Gilded Age, and the government is everything except Laissez-Faire in this day and age. There are rules and regulations for every industry, and they have to be followed to the tee, or else your business goes out of business. There are industry giants in every industry and if you are of the “Tired, the poor, and the huddled masses”, you have no chance to achieve the “American Dream”. Today, if you want to have that, you have to either be; born into a privileged family, or know very influential people in high places in the country. The American is not achievable in today’s world.

The “Tired, the poor, and the huddled masses” who are suffering don’t know that they have ways to change their situation. For example, if you go into a low socio-economic area, anywhere in the United States, the gas prices are, at a minimum, ten cents higher than in high socio-economic areas, because most poor people don’t know that they have options, because their life is in one to two neighborhoods. Their stores have prices that are marked up because they don’t know any better, and frankly, it is robbery.

The “American Dream” is not achievable for the lesser privileged because the people that are currently running the country have configured it that way. The way the country is right now the lesser privileged are set up to be at a disadvantage their whole lives, and the people who are privileged don’t seem to care at all.