So growing up, I had this idea that the American dream was about that if you put in an honest amount of work, you would be rewarded with a good life. This would mean you would be able to take care of yourself and your family, afford a car and a house. In my view, working one job would probably be enough.
Nowadays, I get the idea that the American dream has become about working your ass off in order to have a chance to become a millionaire. Somehow glorifying âthe grindâ appears to be a part of it too now.
The American dream has been slipping out of reach gradually since the 80s, but people just keep hoping real hard about it; poll done about a year ago shows that close to half of Americans think theyâll be billionaires one day.
Edit: The poll more accurately says nearly half of Americans think itâs possible theyâll be billionaires. Which is, for all practical purposes, no less wrong.
Aka people who donât realize how much a billion dollars is and what you have to do to get it. That is, have rich parents, to start with.
the dream is well and alive for those in the top 10%. They are the ones who are culturally dominate. All the writers in the media, etc. As well as the doctors, lawyers, business people, etc. They live in a exclusive bubble and they donât associate with the bottom 90%.
They see the rest of us as just lazy idiots who should have âworked harderâ like they did, by having parents that can afford to pay for your housing and education into adulthood.
That explains all the writers for popular TV, movies, and book series who are living in quads eating ramen in the their 30s. The reason thereâs massive a doctors shortage is because people with money donât want to go into a low paying position, and people without money canât afford to make $30k year during their residency as their student loans go into repayment. The only way to become rich as a doctor now is to patent something, which is not why most people become doctors. Lawyers who make top sums all come from 16ish very expensive schools and are often legacies. And the gold rush of getting into tech companies and then falling into success is almost entirely over. If youâre not born wealthy there are fewer opportunities every day to change that.
