The American Dream:
Achievable or Legend?

Once upon a time the impressive sight of a shining, glimmering copper Statue of Liberty welcomed millions of immigrants seeking entry to the United States with the plaque containing a quote from Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus”: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” It should be made clear that these words alone do not promise a better life, despite what many may think. Rather it promises only the opportunity for a better life. Such a belief is the root of the American Dream, the idea that anyone can succeed by working hard enough. As such, America has prided itself on being the “land of opportunity,” the place where everyone can become successful by following their dreams and working hard. But is America really the land of opportunity? That is to say, how successful can you really be in the United States when you compare it to other countries?

The American Dream is a vast topic that differs from person to person, and it would be disingenuous to proceed without addressing the many different versions of the American Dream, A New York Times poll found that the three most agreed upon versions of the American Dream are freedom/opportunity at 27%, hard work leads to success at 18% and a secure job at 11%. To look at both opportunity and hard work translating to success, I will look at the US’ social mobility. Social mobility is a person’s ability to overcome their current economic class and move into a higher one. This kind of social mobility is called “relative social mobility.” It’s important to note that it is distinctly different from “absolute social mobility” which measures the wealth of the population as a whole. If a newer generation of a country has higher wages while adjusting for inflation, then that country has a positive absolute social mobility. Relative social mobility takes a look at the individual, absolute mobility looks at the country as a whole.

There is no doubt the USA has a great absolute social mobility. According to a Pew research study, 84% of Americans have higher wages than their parents. However, despite a high absolute mobility, the United States actually has a relatively low relative social mobility.

It is counterintuitive to think that the country that is heralded as “the land of opportunity” is not the country that best allows its citizens the ability to move up in social class nor is it the one that provides it’s citizens the most freedom. Regardless of whether or not the American Dream is dead, the belief in it is surely dying in newer generations. In a 2015 poll conducted by Harvard’s Institute of Politics, 49 percent of people 18-29 years old responded that the dream was indeed alive, while 48 percent that it was dead for them. This belief was split fairly evenly between whites (49 percent believed that the dream was alive,) African-Americans (44 percent believed that the dream was alive) and Hispanics (52 percent believed the dream was alive.) No information on Asian Americans was given. A CNN poll found that nearly 60 percent of Americans said the American Dream was unachievable.

The lack of faith in the so-called “American” is a mirror of the world as it is today. With a weak economy, it’s no surprise that Americans feel disillusioned with the belief that hard work can get a person into a higher social class. The director of the Economic Mobility Project at Pew Charitable Trusts, Erin Currier says that “The pessimism is reflective of the financial realities a lot of families are facing. They are treading water, but their income is not translating into solid financial security.” But while Americans are thinking one thing, the data shows something else entirely. Harvard economics professor Raj Chetty says that “We find that children entering the labor market today have the same chances of moving up in the income distribution as children born in the 1970s.” Moving up in this sense is relative to the parents of the children in question. This means social mobility hasn’t changed in at least 40 years. So why does it feel so hard to move up in the world in the eyes of many Americans?

The Equality of Opportunity Project ran a study that showed that 90 percent of Americans in 1940 were able to earn more than their parents, dropping to around 50 percent by 1980. The main reason for this they cite is income inequality. The poor remain poor while the rich get richer. By breaking up the US into sections, we see that it is the poorer, rural areas that provide less chance for more earnings. In the worst sections, particularly in the southern states between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi, the chance of earning more than the previous generation is 4.8 percent or lower. The best chance of moving up in terms of income distribution is to move out of those rural areas. This is not always a feasible option however. Many families are stuck in low-income areas. Inside those low-income areas are poorer and therefore more ineffective schools, which leads to a lower average education level. The lower the average education level, the less potential there is for new earnings. Thus the cycle continues, and the poor remain in the same spot, if not becoming poorer.

So domestically we know that the United States hasn’t really had that big of a difference in the percent of people who move on to a higher social class, but how does the US compare internationally? Compared to other rich nations, the US lags behind other countries, specifically European countries. Several different studies show that the US has a .47 intergenerational social elasticity. Very simply, this means that the average person in the US has a 47 percent chance to earn the same amount of money their parents did. The closest countries to the US while having a higher social elasticity are the UK and Italy both at an elasticity of .50. After that, it’s Chile at .52 and Slovenia at .54. Directly below the US is Pakistan at a social elasticity of .45 and France at .42. To recap, that means the average person in Pakistan has a 1 percent higher chance of making more money than their parents did compared to the average US citizen. Other major countries include Japan with a .34, Canada at .19 and Denmark at an astoundingly low elasticity of .15. The other Scandinavian countries, Norway and Finland are close to Denmark at .17 and .18 respectively.

While the US hasn’t changed in terms of social mobility in the past 40 years, it’s altogether no too surprising that it hasn’t. Most rich countries have retained their relative mobility in recent history. An exception to this rule is Canada where elasticity rates, according to University of Ottawa professor Miles Corak, went from a .29 elasticity rate in 2006 to a .25 in 2011 and as low as .19 today. Corak’s data also shows that countries with higher income inequality have lower social elasticities.

The truest American Dream story is one of getting to the highest social class- moving up in social class is nice, but nothing quite beats a “rags-to-riches” story. However, the US seems to lag behind other countries even there. Julia Isaacs at The Brookings Institute compared the poorest fifth of a country’s population and measured their progress. Progress was measured by observing children and what situation they were in, and then finding out what they are in now after becoming full adults. In the US 42 percent of children in the poorest fifth of the population stayed in the lowest fifth into adulthood. 50 percent were able to climb to the earnings of people in the second, third or fourth fifth of the population. That leaves a final 8 percent of the lowest income earners who were able to climb all the way up to the wealthiest fifth of the population.

Looking at the Scandinavian countries that showed the lowest intergenerational social elasticity, we find that their poor have a much higher chance of succeeding. Those countries showed that a child had a 61-63 percent chance of getting out of their parent’s bracket at the lowest fifth by one to three brackets. The amount of people who went from the lowest to the highest bracket was as high as 14 percent (Denmark) with the lowest of the Scandinavian countries (Finland and Sweden) scoring a still impressive 11 percent. Even the United Kingdom, which had a lower intergenerational social elasticity, showed more hopeful rates for their poorest people, with only 30 percent of them staying as the poorest. The UK actually ties with Norway at 12 percent of people who climbed from the lowest to the highest. It’s important to remember that “intergenerational social elasticity” only means that a person makes more money than their parents and is not representative of their social class. A person can make more money than their parents while still retaining the social class of their parents.

Now obviously, the mobility of the lower classes obviously causes others to go down into the poorest 20 percent. The amount of people who remained in the top fifth from childhood to adulthood showed generally a 2 percent spread. With the exception of the UK, the countries mentioned in the last paragraph all had 35-37 percent of their wealthiest people stay as the wealthiest. Only 30 percent of people in the UK retained their status. That is where the similarities end, however, for the US is the only country in which 10 percent of people born into the top fifth dropped into the lowest fifth. The UK trails slightly behind at 11 percent, and the Scandinavian countries all have 15 percent with the exception of Sweden at 16 percent. This is a testament to the income inequality in America. The other countries, much more socialistic than the US, all have a better wealth distribution, which makes going in and out of brackets much easier.
It can be argued that the definition of the American Dream isn’t exactly related to the relative social mobility. It is a fair assessment to say that as again, the topic of the American Dream is broad and varies from person to person. But even if we alter the meaning of the American Dream to mean a stable lifestyle, a house, a car and a disposable income for luxury items. A study taking these variables was done by a group of Canadian researchers with TheRedPin. According to them, no country in the world could support their hypothetical American Dream scenario. Interestingly enough, the two closest countries to achieving this goal were Oman and Saudi Arabia. This is based off the costs of living, buying the items mentioned above, as well as taking the average income earned by a worker in these countries.

Freedom and is the last bit of the American Dream that has not been touched yet. Freedom is the pride and joy of this country, celebrated and heralded by every state, every district and every person. What would America be without freedom? With the freedoms granted by the law, the US ranks 23rd on the Human Freedom Index, and index published by a non-partisan think tank known as The Cato Institute, who collaborated with the Fraser Institute in Canada, and the Liberales Institut at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Germany.
“Human freedom is a social concept that recognizes the dignity of the individual,” says Ian Vazquez, who headed the creation of the index. “The declining performance of the United States, once considered the bastion of liberty, is worrisome,” In 2008 the HFI ranked the US as the 16th freest country in the world. Five years later, they were in 19th. According to Vazquez, “We should all be concerned with the impact on liberty of the war on terror, the war on drugs, and the decline in the rule of law and economic liberty in the United States.” These were the main reasons the US is on the decline in the HFI. At the top of the index we have Hong Kong as the freest country, Switzerland at number two, New Zealand in third, Ireland in fourth, Denmark at fifth and Canada, the UK and Australia tied for sixth. It’s important to note that with the exception of the UK all these other countries have a higher social elasticity and higher social mobility than the United States.

With all of this evidence, it is safe to say that the American Dream is no longer uniquely American. Nothing about the American Dream belongs only to America, and in fact, it seems that the idea of the American Dream is an idea survived only by its fame. Younger generations have less and less faith in the American Dream. They do not believe in it. This doubt in something so quintessential to the American way of life is not unnatural given the world economy, but even in better years, the US is not the best country in terms of economic growth. In better years, the US was not even the freest country, and in the current economic situation, it’s hard for people to afford the houses they want. Research has shown that more progressive countries are doing better than the US in terms of economic mobility, owning a house and even in the freedom of its citizens.

The United States does have a course of action, however. To increase social mobility, they need to invest properly in the poorest areas of the country by investing in education. The government needs to take more conclusive steps to fixing the economy so that people can start making more as a whole, providing them with the jobs that pay out enough for their mortgages. The wars on drugs and terror need to be looked at and reviewed closely. If the US cannot do those things, then it truly doesn’t deserve to be known for its freedom. If that should ever happen, the American Dream will be truly just a legend.

Works Cited

Chetty, Raj, and Nathaniel Hendren. “The Equality of Opportunity Project.” The Equality of Opportunity Project. The Equality of Opportunity Project, 1 Aug. 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

Corak, Miles. “Social Mobility and Social Institutions in Comparison Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States.” Economics for Public Policy. Cato Institute, 21 May 2012. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. .

Gass, Bick. “Poll: Half of Millennials Say the American Dream Is Dead.” POLITICO. POLITICO, 12 Oct. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2016. .

Hargreaves, Sean. “America’s Economic Mobility Myth.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 9 Dec. 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2016. .

Isaacs, Julia B. “INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS OF ECONOMIC MOBILITY.” The Brookings Institute. The Brookings Institute, 28 July 2016. Web. 08 Dec. 2016. .

Luhby, Tami. “The American Dream Is out of Reach.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 4 June 2014. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. .

Perez, Esten. “The Institute of Politics at Harvard University.” Harvard IOP Fall 2015 Poll | The Institute of Politics at Harvard University. Harvard Institute of Politics, 10 Nov. 2015. Web. 08 Dec. 2016. .

Seelye, Katharine Q. “What Happens to the American Dream in a Recession?” The New York Times. The New York Times, 07 May 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2016. .

Vasquez, Ian, and Tanja Porcnik. “The Human Freedom Index.” Cato Institute. Cato Institute, 4 Feb. 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. .

Venator, Joanna, and Richard V. Reeves. “Mobility: What Are You Talking About?” Brookings. The Brookings Institute, 28 July 2016. Web. 9 Dec. 2016. .

Winship, Scott. “Does the U.S. Have Lower Economic Mobility than Other Countries?” National Review. National Review, 06 July 2015. Web. 10 Dec. 2016. .

1. Bandler, Aaron. “5 Statistics You Need To Know About Cops Killing Blacks.” Daily Wire. N.p., 07 July 2016. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.

This article by Aaron Bandler was a very informative article that gave many important statistics on police shootings. It gave numbers such as the number of African-Americans killed by police officers..

I used this article by applying the statistics to both sides of the BLM cause. It provided insight on what is truly going on.

2. Craven, Julia. “Here’s How Many Black People Have Been Killed By Police This Year.” Huffingtonpost.com. Huffington Post, n.d. Web.

This article by Julia Craven was an article that was bias in favor of the Black Lives matter movement. It gave an interesting perspective on how strongly some people feel about police officers killing African-Americans.

I used this source sarcastically in a way. I used it to portray how near-sighted people can be without knowing all the facts about a situation.

3. @newsone. “Black Police Officer Talks Police Brutality, Racism In Interview.” News One. N.p., 10 May 2012. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.

This article was an interview with an anonymous new york city cop. It gave a police officers opinion on the public outcry and call to action on the police force. It showed how upset the police were with being painted as villains.

I used direct quotes from this article in order to show the perspective of cops on the subject at hand.

4. “Police News.” Blue Lives Matter. N.p., 09 Dec. 2016. Web. 12 Dec. 2016

This article was the bias of the Blue Lives Matter movement that was bias in favor of the police officers. It was basically and agenda for everything the blue lives matter movement was trying to accomplish.

I used this article to gain my own perspective on both sides of the problem. It helped me make an informed decision on what I thought was right.

5. Suarez, Alexandra. “Dakota Access Pipeline: What You Need to Know.” International Business Times – Business News, Technology, Politics. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.

This article offered even more statistics for both sides and their loses of life. It showed only facts and real statistics.

I used this article the same way as the first. I applied the statistics to supply useful information.

6. Ubiñas, Helen. “Ubinas: Ignorance on Both Sides of Black Lives Matter Movement Must Be Called out.” Philly.com. N.p., 11 July 2016. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.

This article was an unbiased on that gave note to incidents that occurred that effected both sides. It was a much more balanced opinion on the entire situation.

I used it to further improve upon my own ideas and form my own opinions on the topic.

7. Williams, Janice. “Police Shooting Statistics 2016: Are More Black People Killed By Officers Than Other Races?” International Business Times. N.p., 26 Sept. 2016. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.

This article contained even more statistics and they were even more specific than the others.

I used the numbers in the same way as all of the other ones, to inform and not give my opinion.

Which Lives Matter More

            “Black lives matter”, is an arrogant near-sighted quote that only serves to protect half of a population. It is important to consider and take heed to the fact that people are dying at the hands of law enforcement, however “Black” isn’t the only victim in this fight for justice and equality. “Black” is the term used to describe African-Americans, and there is little debate against the fact that their lives matter. However their lives do not matter more than any other human beings lives. There is a problem with a small minority of law enforcement officers who are much to quick to bare arms and draw their weapon. Sometimes a firearm is fatally discharged by a police officer in an altercation, but it isn’t always a mistake. In fact the majority of the time it can be seen as justifiable. The Black Lives Matter campaign has spurred off of the few times when an African-American is unjustifiably killed in a police related incident. These incidents need to see light so that the officer responsible can be properly disciplined, but media coverage can’t be so irresponsible that a war is sparked between two groups of human beings. A story needs to be shown true and the facts need to be put on display, but nothing should be hyperbolized or dramatized just to draw more attention to the situation. No irresponsible assumptions should be made to suggest that there is more to a situation. Americans as a people cannot be so foolish and believe that African-Americans can do no wrong and Law enforcement is evil. There are two sides to every argument, but one side cannot be heard over the roar of drama coming from media. Police officers are being molded into villains and no one should sit idle while they are being buried.

There are important statistics that should be known by all before looking into the Black Lives Matter or BLM movement. The activists of this movement believe that police officers are targeting African-Americans to murder them in cold blood. This couldn’t be further from the truth when in reality only twenty-six percent of fatal police shootings were on African-Americans. Fifty percent of these same shootings were on White-Americans (Bandler). The argument against this stat is that white people make up sixty two percent of the population and black people make up eighteen percent. Another statistic shows, that of all violent crimes such as homicide, assault, and armed robberies, sixty-six percent of them are committed by African Americans (Bandler). It’s strange that even though the majority of the crimes in which force is most frequently required are committed by African-Americans, they are killed the least by police force. In the eyes of the BLM movement activists this means that their protests are working. In reality the movement is being blown up out of proportion by the media and this in turn is hurting police effectiveness.

The media scrutiny along with the activists has created an immense amount of pressure for all police officers when handling a situation. Due to the constant media and BLM activist pressure police officers cannot properly perform their duties without the fear of being thrown at the mercy of the unforgiving world. A world that is influenced heavily by the media is not a fair one to be judged in. If a police officer reacts to a situation and fires his weapon to defuse a situation, in which he felt he had no other option, and an African-American dies, it surely means the end of his career. An officer almost can’t be a hero anymore. The media in today’s world is who should be made out to be the villain, but sadly they have the voice, and they decide who the bad guys are. The media will tell people when African American dying is a hate crime and they will tell people when police officers are wrongly killing unarmed African-Americans. What the media conveniently won’t tell people, is when a police officer saves lives, or when a police officer gives back to his or her community. The media irresponsibly paints a picture of police officers being trigger-happy bringers of wrongful justice. This only applies to the smallest minority of officers. Most police officers sign up for the job because they want to have a positive impact on society. They sign up to protect people who otherwise can’t protect them selves. They want to protect and serve as they are taught to do. The majority of officers has a passion for their job and couldn’t fathom the idea of killing an innocent civilian because of the color of their skin. In an interview with an anonymous officer of the NYPD when asked if he has ever seen racism among his fellow officers he replied, “Never, no officer in the department ever has any racist remarks or comments” he also stated, “Many believe that police officers target people who fit the build of Urban, Hip-hop culture, but there are many officers that when out of uniform fit the very same build. With the sagging pants, cornrows, and fitted hats. It just doesn’t make sense that we would unfairly target these individuals.” (@newsone). Anyone with eyes can see that many of the people who are involved in these police shootings that are blown up over the media do fit the hip-hop culture build. Those same people also need to understand that the culture is a violent one.

Artists of the hip-hop community preach violence, and calls people to action against the police force. What the media fails to show the world is when people take this call to action seriously and act on it. The only times this action can be seen is when the magnitude is too large to be buried under the other side of the equation. For instance most recently the killings of five Dallas police officers was place all over front pages raising the awareness that there is more than one side to this battle for equality. The stat earlier showed that twenty-six percent of people killed by police officers are black. On the other end of the spectrum forty percent of police officers killed, are killed by black men (Bandler). That’s a staggering number nearly twice as high. It’s hard to believe that with this information the people still believe strongly that the police officers are the bad guys.

There is another movement taking place that isn’t as popular, but bares the same acronym of BLM. This movement was formed in direct response to the Black Lives Matter movement and it is known as, Blue Lives Matter. Blue of course refers to the color of a police officers uniform. This cause while just as important receives only a fraction of the media coverage. Fair or not it is the truth. One thing that these activists will never do is declaring justice by way of killing African-Americans. The same cannot be said about the other side. A direct quote from a Black Lives Matter activist is, “No justice until there’s dead fucking police!” (Craven). This is a bold arrogant declaration made by an arrogant person with no knowledge of the true statistics. The same concept was referenced by the anonymous NYPD cop when he said, “Many of the people in the department are mad because the media is so quick to paint us as the bad guys. I suggest people wait for all of the facts to hang out.” (@newsone). It is important that all people wait for all facts to be clear before rushing to judgment. No one has the authority to be the judge jury and executioner of another human unless their job title entitles them to those important decisions. Even when all the facts are presented in the shooting of an African-American, no one can truly know what happened because they weren’t there. All a person can do is speculate as to what might of happened. That’s what makes the whole idea that a police officer maliciously killed a person so ludicrous. Yet another stat shows of the 178 black men killed in 2016 only twelve of them were proven to be unarmed (Bandler). One killing of an unarmed man is too much, however mistakes can be made. Nobody can truly know if a police officer had bad intentions when pulling the trigger, but these men and women have been trained to protect and serve. There are psych evaluations done on every person who tries to be a police officer and they are meticulous. Most of the bad eggs are weeded out and the ones that manage to slip through the cracks are quickly disposed of. There is no room for crooked cops in the world, and steps are taken every day to try and prevent any more of them from making it through.

Every death is a tragedy, whether it is wrongful or not. It makes sense for these deaths of unarmed people at the hands of police officers to be publicized the way that they are. What doesn’t make sense is when a death of an officer making a routine traffic stop isn’t publicized the same way. There is an eerie feeling that almost creates the sense that this is just something that happens and is how things work out. Tell that to the families whom had their mothers and fathers taken away from them because somebody wanted to avoid a speeding ticket. The media should be making the peoples who commit these crimes as the villains, but that’s just not the case. They would much rather see the controversial topic of police officers killing unarmed civilians covered thoroughly. Neither death is any less important than the other, but the magnitude at which one side is hyperbolized more than the other is a crime.

For the violence to stop it would take a great deal of effort from both sides. However so far it has been a one sided fight. With Black Lives Matter activists calling for the death of police officers and police officers living in fear of people who will act on these wishes, it creates a scary situation. It creates a situation that is unfair to officers who just want to do their jobs. The added pressure that is created from them having to walk such a narrow line on what is right and wrong only adds to the tension of the current situation. It makes the two side opposed to each other and this friction leads to chaos, the very same chaos that the police are out trying to suppress. The Black Lives Matter movement has to be the first to go for any progress to be made. They are the group that is calling for action and they are the group that is too arrogant to see the facts all the way through. It is easy to act purely off of emotions. It takes patience and tolerance to see the facts for what they are. Humans are fortunate enough to have critical thinking skills that are beyond comparison and it is time people put those skills to good use to end this nonsense.

The prospect that Black Lives matter isn’t crazy and it isn’t stupid. It is very important and there shouldn’t be any message that says other wise. The idea that police lives matter is just as serious. Something that must be agreed upon is that all lives matter. This is the message that needs to be spread by the media and by all activists. Police officers are not out to get anybody, let alone African-Americans. No officer wants to shoot their weapon ever, and even worse they never wish to shoot an unarmed person. Protect and serve isn’t an idea that is as lost as people think. The media must be more responsible in how they cover police activity. This selective hearing must end and the age of click-bait and controversy must end as well. Coverage needs to be fair an unbiased. All of these things are needed of the media, but no one can wait on their change anytime soon. The media has been consistent ever since there has been news, and in this age of social networking it has never been easier for people to receive the wrong information. Therefore the weight of change rests solely on the shoulders of the people. Everyday mean and women, and especially the activists of each BLM movements must be the ones to change. Both movements must be abolished so that the men and women proven to protect and serve the people may preform their duties to the best of their abilities. No longer can people beckon for death of others, there has to be an attempt at peace no matter how unobtainable it may be. It is important that wrongful deaths are covered by media, but society must also be sure to see all of the facts of a situation before rushing to judgment. There may be no salvation I the near future, but all must learn from mistakes that are currently being made. The world isn’t as horrible as everyone wants it to be, and there aren’t as many villains that there seems to be. Every police officer is not a hunter of

African-Americans they are just being painted in such a manor that such things can be believed. The idea police officers are villains, is not one of fact but one that is manufactured because of its controversy. At the end of the day all lives matter, but for now both sides of the BLM movement must be spoken for. The cries of the police officers are falling on deaf ears that have already labeled them killers. These men and women have chosen to sacrifice their lives to protect and serve the same people they are accused of killing in dead blood. Their lives are just as important and nothing should ever be said against that. There can no longer be questions of whose lives matter, there must only be the understanding that all lives matter.