The American Dream

Introduction

We've all heard about the American dream. The idea of ??the American dream is simple: everyone can become a rich man or a woman. All you need is effort, work, resignation. But the opportunities are there. The deep and inextinguishable feeling of hatred and rejection that occurs in the anointed this idea is perfectly understandable. The reasons are several. First, the emphasis on individual behavior is on the responsibility (Hochschild, 104-108). Then the idea of ??personal success, true anathema to the left. Add to this the idea that the system, contrary to what they say, opens the opportunity for all. Finally, and as a corollary, the idea that those who have not attained wealth is because they have chosen well. The latter conclusion is true for all cases, but not all. It is these considerations which have led to the left, and with it the dominant culture, to deny the American dream. To take on this reality all the lime they have. But this attitude is most reprehensible for two reasons. Because it violates the truth of things, and because it discourages self-help, entrepreneurship, responsibility, thrift, which are the sources of personal success and social development (Delbanco, 89-97).

Discussion

The importance of property and the right of citizens to own and acquire property were incorporated in the Declaration of Independence and formed one of the hallmarks of American political culture. In an effort to secure the frontier, successive administrations in Washington encouraged resettlement in the West by opening territory to settlers, often granting land rights for minimal costs or even for free. Following the War of 1812 westward expansion greatly accelerated, and after the acquisition of California in the 1840s, the movement to fill in the interior of the nation was accelerated both by the economic promises of the California gold rush and by encouragement in the popular media, where prominent newspapermen such as Horace Greeley urged Easterners to “Go West” to seek their fortunes and the promise of a better life. Migration was encouraged by events such as the Oklahoma land rush. The government opened up some 3 million acres (1.2 million ha) of land to settlers in 160-acre (65-ha) plots for whites at the expense of the Native American tribes living in the territory (Hochschild, 104-108).

For Americans at the onset of the twentieth century, the “good life” was marked by economic success. Nonetheless, the economic disparities created a ...