The Presence of ‘The Dream’ in America Essay

The problem of immigration is one of the oldest and most painful problems in the United States. About 200 years ago, one of the “founding fathers” of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, expressed concern that the mass immigration of immigrants from Germany could have a negative impact on the Anglo-Saxon culture of America. To date, immigration has found completely different traits and some experts even said that the concept of “American Dream” is experiencing a new birth. At least, the American President Donald Trump states this. However, even though America is one of the most developed countries, I contend that American Dream is not beneficial socially, economically and politically for the immigrants because migration becomes much harder today due to governmental policies and economic structure.

To begin, it is necessary to understand the main essence of the concept of “American dream” because it would seem that this is an ode to financial success and equal opportunities for all Americans, as well as immigrants. However, exploring the history of this term, one can find its close connection with America First – a concept widely used by populist and nationalist politicians, including racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan (Barlett and Steele, 2012). Being more attentive to details, it can be said that this concept did not arise at the time of the “founding fathers”. It is much younger than people think, and became a kind of response to the “roaring twenties” – the crushing fall of the stock exchange in 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression.

In order to understand the origin of the “American dream”, it is necessary to go back almost a hundred years ago. Then America was torn between problems of immigration, European conflicts and impressive economic and industrial changes. Growing inequalities provoked demonstrations and riots. In 1914, the journalist Walter Lippmann wrote the book “Drift and Mastery”, and it is possible to find the first mention of the phrase “American dream” in the sense of “the common collective American ideal” in the book (Lippmann, 2010). Limpan believed that the American dream of continuous progress should be somehow limited, because it is nothing more than a fantasy that distracts people from reality.

Nowadays, the concept of the “American dream” means that a person can achieve something in America. One can come to the country, overcome class barriers that are not a deterrent in American society, and he/she can choose who he wants to be. It means that transformative potential has been incorporated into this concept, and this is the absolute basis of American nature (Arnold, 2013). However, such an “American dream” is now being destroyed because, in fact, people do not have social mobility and there is considerable inequality between them. If everyone wants to be first, it necessarily means that someone will be left behind, and such a situation means the fact that the concept of “American dream” looses its social, economic and political advantage.

Observing the reasons explaining why American Dream is not beneficial economically, it can be said that economic inequality in the United States has been at its highest level since the 1930s, but most immigrants are relatively careless on this issue. The main idea is that immigrants accept such inequality because they overestimate the reality of the “American dream” – the idea that any immigrant with sufficient determination and inflexibility can climb the economic ladder, no matter where he begins his life. The American dream implies that the greatest economic benefits rightly fall to the most harworking and worthy members of society. For instance, Barack Obama said “I believe we can give our middle class relief and provide working families with a road to opportunity” (Obama, 2004). However, there is quite opposite interpretation of these words. This means that immigrants across the entire spectrum of the economy have really greatly overestimated the scale of vertical mobility in society. The data also confirmed the psychological usefulness of this error: a reassessment of vertical mobility was beneficial for both rich and poor people. For those who considered themselves rich and successful, this helped justify their wealth. For the poor, this provided hope for a bright economic future.

The social state of the twentieth century completely disappears. It should be replaced by a “participatory society”, in which people themselves must be responsible for their future, since America’s labor market and public services no longer meet the requirements of the time (Arnold, 2013). There is no alternative, which means that the market economy, free trade and globalization is the only system that works, and the discussion on this matter is over. However, the main argument of supporters of any unpopular antisocial reform is its objective inevitability. This argument in recent decades has been increasingly used to justify all decisions aimed at dismantling the welfare state, as well as it is used not only in the United States. Moreover, continuing the theme of the reassessment of social mobility by immigrants, it should be added that the US, as well as other Western countries are not “open”, but a caste society.

Different governmental policies and economic structure of the United States greatly influence on the possibility of immigrants to enter the country. In recent years, the world has witnessed a whole series of acute political crises in all parts of the world. Weak authoritarian regimes in the periphery achieved their collapse, but the so-called stable democracies have experienced and continue to experience increasing pressure from within too. The key point in this context is the following: the “American dream” initially set up the economic system to achieve high rates of economic development and an increase in the level of well-being of the population (Wallechinsky, 2010). As a result, the American political system, including foreign policy, is also focused on achieving a high standard of living for most US citizens, since it serves primarily the economy. However, the “general welfare” is very difficult to achieve under capitalism only at the expense of internal resources.

In conclusion, the power of the United States is based not only on military and economic power. The religious and ideological concepts of the “American dream” and “American exclusivity” became the initial drivers of the development and formation of the United States as a regional, and then a world power. The meaning and content of these ideas have changed over time, taking on an increasingly pragmatic form, but they are still a serious element of the US policy. Effective propaganda of the concepts under consideration among Americans has tuned the political and economic system of the United States to the maximum acceleration of development and the achievement of leading positions in the whole range of areas of scientific and technological progress and has led to the country’s claims to world leadership. However, to date, the “American dream” is not beneficial socially, economically and politically for the immigrants because one can see the duality of the concept of exclusivity: on the one hand, there is exclusivity for “domestic consumption”, which is sufficient to declare, and external, which is beneficial to prove. Thus, this suggests that the belief in the American dream is depressingly erroneous compared to objective reality.

Works Cited

Arnold, G. Projecting the End of the American Dream: Hollywood’s Visions of U.S. Decline. Praeger, 2013.

Barlett, D. and Steele, J. The Betrayal of the American Dream. Public Affairs, 2012.

Lippmann, W. Drift and mastery; an attempt to diagnose the current unrest. Naby Press, 2010.

Obama, B. “Keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.” PBS News Hour, 27 July 2004. Available at https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/barack-obamas-keynote-address-at-the-2004-democratic-national-convention

Wallechinsky, D. “Is the American Dream Still Possible?” Parade, 4 Oct. 2010. Available at https://parade.com/49040/parade/is-the-american-dream-still-possible/

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 19, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 19, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 19, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 19, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 19, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 19, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 19, 2024]
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