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Page added on July 2, 2014
What does the “American Dream” mean today
What does the “American Dream” mean today? How—and how successfully—are Americans achieving this dream? How has the concept of the “American Dream” shifted over the past 10 years?
These questions are at the heart of the Center for a New American Dream’s 2014 national survey, conducted in partnership with PolicyInteractive.
The survey, which polled 1,821 U.S. citizens ages 18 and over, illustrates the shift in public consciousness around the topic of the American Dream and sheds new light on the topics of advertising, the environment, consumption, and the sharing economy.
Major findings include:
1. The majority of Americans believe that it is more difficult to achieve the American Dream than it was a decade ago, due primarily to the high costs of education and healthcare.
2. Americans who have chosen to work fewer hours report an overall improvement in quality of life, indicating that this shift has positively affected their lives by allowing for more free time and reduced stress.
3. Americans are interested in increasing their sharing practices and learning more about the sharing economy. Over half of respondents believe that sharing lowers environmental impact, builds community, and helps save money.
4. Americans feel strongly that the way we live produces too much waste, and that our high consumption levels are largely responsible for global environmental problems. An overwhelming majority feel that we will need to make major changes in the way we live to counterbalance this phenomenon.
5. Americans believe that commercialism and advertising have gotten out of hand in the United States, and that the government should do more to combat it. Almost three-quarters of Americans believe there should be limits on advertising to children, including limits on advertising in public spaces and in schools.
6. Millennials make use of sharing economy services—such as bike sharing and peer-to-peer lodging—at a rate more than double their Baby Boomer and Gen X peers, and are interested in expanding their sharing practices. They are also more optimistic than Baby Boomers and Gen Xers that they will be able to achieve the American Dream.
7. Non-white Americans are more interested in sharing practices than white Americans.
Click on each infographic for a larger view. See also the final analysis report, the full survey results, and thesurvey methodology.
26 Comments on "What does the “American Dream” mean today"
Plantagenet on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 11:27 am
It’s more difficult than ever to attain the American dream today thanks to the incompetent economic policies of the Obama administration. Poverty, extended unemployment, college debt, food stamp use, and all sorts of government dependency are all at record levels
Pveroi on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 11:47 am
Seems to imply that the majority of Americans aren’t getting the economy they want in America. I’m actually surprised by some of the numbers of people who are interested in sharing economy. Very uplifting.
Steve on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 12:18 pm
Plant do you really believe there is a difference in the two parties? Come on! yeah Obama is a real bummer but I bet Romney would have done the same things….You reduce the conversation to playground semantics….find another venues to play this game there are plenty of those…
Roman on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 12:36 pm
Obama was elected by idiots and america diserves him. Nominations should be random like jury duty. Also technology makes it posible for people to make policy directly without the government. But people dont really want change.
J-Gav on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 1:14 pm
Roman – I don’t know that Obama was elected by ‘idiots,’ probably just people desperate for some ‘hope and change.’ After the Bushy years, I won’t spit on them even if, personally, I haven’t voted since I discovered that all national elections are rigged, gamed, maimed and mangled – some time ago.
As for your suggestion that nominations should be ‘random,’ you have a point. Contrary to what most people believe, in the original Athenian democracy, administrative positions were in fact filled by drawing lots (also known as sortition), not by any popular vote. Of course a number of rules governed the process (limited to male freemen, mentally impaired ‘winners’ filtered out, etc) until the aristocracy took over once again. And some key posts were filled by vote of a select committee – the treasurer and the military commander for example.
Juan Pueblo on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 1:22 pm
I found the title question interesting. What is the American Dream today?
We do need to redefine what the term American Dream means in today’s world. We need an adapted to limits American Dream where bigger doesn’t mean better.
I dream of a world that somewhat recovers from what’s coming, but I don’t know for certain that we will remain part of the picture for much longer. But dreams are dreams, and reality is something else.
Northwest Resident on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 1:27 pm
J-Gav — Good points. It reminds me of the scene of that movie named “Gladiator” where Maximus, in response to being asked if he would take control of Rome and insure its democratic transition after Marcus Aurelius’ death, answered “no” — and why Marcus Aurelius said “Maximus, that is why it must be you.”
The ones most qualified to lead are almost always the ones who are not seeking to lead, or positioning themselves to lead, or manipulating and buying their way into “leadership” positions when the sole and only intent is to gain power and wealth and to satisfy some burning ego.
We know that the least qualified always end up in positions of leadership and power. That is the problem with the human race, and could ultimately be its undoing!
J-Gav on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 1:28 pm
On to the ‘American Dream,’ which goes hand in hand with ‘American exceptionalism’ I suppose.
I’ll repeat a confession already made: I must have been one inattentive SOB at my podunk Michigan high school, even if I was third in my class, because I don’t recall ever even hearing the expression “American Dream.”
Once I moved to Europe, I found it was on everyone’s lips but I’ve never quite managed to understand what it’s all about … Since listening to other people’s definitions of it over the years, for me it’s never appeared to be anything more than a cheesy grifter’s scam.
Northwest Resident on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 1:45 pm
The “American Dream” can be summed up in the words of one popular bumper sticker:
He who dies with the most toys wins.
The American Dream is all about excessive consumption and keeping up with the Jones’s, advancing oneself through excessive work and devotion to money above all (or most) others. The Human Dream is all about love, security, peace and serenity. The American Dream and the Human Dream are mutually exclusive.
Hawkcreek on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 2:20 pm
It is obvious to me that we live under a one party system.
It is no longer a left versus right struggle. It is a class struggle, and right now the one percent are winning.
The “American Dream” should be to get back to a representative Democracy.
But I don’t think it gonna happen.
GregT on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 2:34 pm
“The “American Dream” should be to get back to a representative Democracy.”
A representative democracy will never work without an intelligent, and informed populous. The MSM promise of the ‘American Dream’ will make sure that the people are neither.
HARM on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 3:12 pm
Clearly Obama is to blame for 100% of the world’s problems today. I mean, he even managed to travel back in time, kill Kennedy, lost Cuba, China and Vietnam to Communists, forced Nixon to take us off the gold standard, forced Reagan to initiate trickle-down deficit spending, deregulation and tax cuts for the rich, forced Clinton and Congress to deregulate the banking industry, forced Bush II and Cheney to invade Iraq, authorize torture, and begin spying on Americans. Heck, I bet he’s even responsible for our over-consumption, over-breeding and reliance on fossil fuels!
Are there any limits to his (evil) powers??
Dave Thompson on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 3:20 pm
Stay out of debt, stay out of the nightmare.
Plantagenet on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 6:00 pm
The American dream traditionally involves children doing better than their parents did. European immigrants would come to America, work hard, and see their sons and daughters go to college and succeed and doctors, lawyers, businesspeople, engineers, scientists, etc. Unfortunately, many kids today have little chance of ever getting decent jobs and owning homes and raising families, much less doing better then their parents. Heck, many young people in US today will never even be able to pay off their college loans.
Steve on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 6:15 pm
“Stay out of debt, stay out of the nightmare.” I wish it were that easy…every person alive right now is in debt….besides who is going to collect, track and enforce collection….I say it is better to use debt to get yourself prepared for what is about to come…The monetary system is done….funny I have not heard anyone mention the Dimon cancer story that is making the rounds through the media….maybe he got too big for his britches…
R1verat on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 6:32 pm
The voter does not decide who is president. The electoral college does.
redpill on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 8:15 pm
If that is your vision of “The Dream” plant, then you must surely believe that we are somehow owed this endless prosperity?
We are a relatively young country that had the benefit of planting our flag on a landmass that would allow us to expand mostly unopposed from sea to shining sea. Then we discovered our oil inheritance. Then we emerged from the greatest war in the world’s history as the industrial powerhouse of the world, sure helped that none of our infrastructure was destroyed during the war!
I believe in my country, but we have grown so very spoiled over the years and we are just now getting a taste of being told “No, you can’t have that”.
The sooner we adapt to the idea that we can’t keep having more and more, the better.
DMyers on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 8:25 pm
“The ones most qualified to lead are almost always the ones who are not seeking to lead, or positioning themselves to lead, or manipulating and buying their way into “leadership” positions when the sole and only intent is to gain power and wealth and to satisfy some burning ego.”
Very well said NWres. But I want to talk about your subsequent comment, where you begin with,”…The American Dream is all about excessive consumption…” That was a good description of a certain version of the
American Dream.
Plantagenet makes an accurate statement about what I recall and identify as the classical American Dream. The American Dream was a product of a mind looking into America from the outside. The Dream was an immigrants dream. The emphasis was not materialism as an end in itself but centered on the opportunity to acquire things of any worth or quantity. The Dream in this sense is alive today with the Latino immigrants.
Another version of the Dream is a derivative of the original. This derivative is the Dream as seen from the inside rather than the outside. It is the Dream as shaped by advertising and television rather than by a first hand experience of having so little, that having merely enough is something to dream of.
I’m not saying one is the True Dream and the other one isn’t. I’m just saying we need to keep our dreams straight, so that we don’t inadvertently blend various dream species into a collective hallucination.
Makati1 on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 9:15 pm
R1verat, the winner is chosen before there is even an election. Think about the opponents to Bush Jr or Obama when they ran. incompetents that the elite knew would not get elected and they would see to it that they didn’t using their money to buy negative advertising just as they buy pro ads for their choice. Or at least, that has been my observations over the last 20 years. Also why I have not bothered to vote.
They already know who will be in the White House in 2017. Do you?
As for the “American Dream”. It has always been to be a wage/debt slave to a bankster. A “consumer” constantly in debt. Never free.
Northwest Resident on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 9:23 pm
DMyers, I totally get your point. I live with an immigrant to America. Her dream was to find a life where she could live in a nice house, have her own car and a good job, be able to buy lots of nice clothes and go to nice places with her friends. Also, to be able to provide for her family, which is still very poor and living in barely tolerable conditions back in the Philippines. I actually did put a lot of thought into that post before I wrote it, asking myself, just what is the American dream. For early American settlers, the dream was to own land where they could raise their own food and family, to be able to create a secure situation for themselves and their children, as Plant pointed out. But yeah, along the way, that American Dream has taken on a lot of meanings, and like everything else in our society, it has been warped and abused and coopted by those who seek to manipulate others for their own ends, ends which always boil down to wealth and power. I don’t even know what the American Dream is anymore. I guess it means different things to different people now. But now, my American Dream is very similar to that of the early settlers. I know that serious shit is headed our way, like a massing hoard of barbarian invaders coming over the hills and descending upon us. And faced with this undeniable reality, my dream is to survive, to protect those who I love and to end up with just enough land and resources and shelter to provide a clam, serene, self-sustaining life on the farm for myself and those I care about. When it is all over and the survivors emerge from the smoke and ashes, I bet that a lot of us will once again be sharing the same American Dream.
Makati1 on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 9:47 pm
In other news:
http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?cid=1101&MainCatID=11&id=20140626000172
http://www.arabnews.com/news/595906
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_07_03/Ukrainian-military-forces-used-bombs-of-American-origin-representative-of-Lugansk-Peoples-Republic-3580/
Have you seen any of these in the US MSM?
Benha on Thu, 3rd Jul 2014 3:22 am
thanks
http://www.bu.edu.eg
Davy on Thu, 3rd Jul 2014 6:32 am
The US is still a great place to live for many. If you look at the world relative to the US in almost every category the US is in the ranking. I think Mak the Wak the reason you put so much energy into soiling the character of the US is precisely because it does still rank highly. All this effort reminds me of Kunstler and his constant effort at predicting the collapse just a few months away. I also laugh Makster at your constant comparison of the P’s to the US. It is as if I would compare the Bahamas to China.
rollin on Thu, 3rd Jul 2014 9:35 am
The American dream is changing.
Don’t really care, have my own dreams and the way to attain them is to do something to achieve them.
First step, turn off the computer …
louis wu on Thu, 3rd Jul 2014 1:32 pm
HARM on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 3:12 pm
Clearly Obama is to blame for 100% of the world’s problems today. I mean, he even managed to travel back in time, kill Kennedy, lost Cuba, China and Vietnam to Communists, forced Nixon to take us off the gold standard, forced Reagan to initiate trickle-down deficit spending, deregulation and tax cuts for the rich, forced Clinton and Congress to deregulate the banking industry, forced Bush II and Cheney to invade Iraq, authorize torture, and begin spying on Americans. Heck, I bet he’s even responsible for our over-consumption, over-breeding and reliance on fossil fuels!
Are there any limits to his (evil) powers??
Let’s not forget kidnapping the Lindbergh baby and causing Amelia Earharts plane crash.
Norm on Fri, 4th Jul 2014 12:07 am
American Dream should include working skulls, and leisure. Like, skill to make a dog house in your driveway, and enough time off to finish. Giant corporations corrupted such concepts and now you click on a dog house on Amazon, and don’t have time to open the carton when it shows up.