How would you describe the “American Dream?”
The “American Dream” is an idea that
America will provide all people with an opportunity to achieve success. However,
whenever I hear “American Dream,” I have this picture in my mind of a man in
the 1950’s who has a good job and is able to provide for his wife and children
as they happily live in suburbia. Of course, this is an outdated representation
of the American Dream in our more modern culture. I think that now the American
Dream is really more for everybody. Everyone can work hard to achieve whatever
their goals are, but their goals do not need to be so similar. One person’s
goal could be like the original American Dream (job, family, suburbia), but
another person’s may not even include having a family and only include service
work to others. Anything that somebody is happily doing and working for can be
part of his or her own American Dream.
Another development is that today, many
people from other countries move into America to achieve this American Dream.This means
that the American Dream can also encompass recovery from a poor situation in
another country.
What is your definition of wealth?
What is your definition of wealth?
My definition of wealth would be a large
quantity of something that is valuable. Of course the first thing that comes to
mind is a large quantity of money or material possessions (interesting that
money comes to mind first?). However, there can also be a wealth of emotion. Somebody
could have a large quantity of happiness, which I would consider very valuable.
So, wealth can be material or emotional, which brings into question, is one
more important?
What are Americans’ attitudes toward wealth and poverty?
What are Americans’ attitudes toward wealth and poverty?
There are two very different views on
wealth and poverty in America, but I do not want to get into that, so in
general I would say that American people want to be wealthy, and they do not
want to live in poverty. Also, and probably because of this view, many people
choose to ignore the impoverished because they are looking up to what they want
to be, focusing on themselves and not others (a side effect of the American
Dream?). As a society, we tend to applaud the rich and successful people,
watching them on television and reading about them in magazines, as we
disregard the less fortunate people.
What is your attitude toward wealth and poverty?
What is your attitude toward wealth and poverty?
My opinion is that it is extremely hard to
live in poverty, and as a society we need to focus more on finding a way to
diminish the amount of people living in poverty in America instead of focusing
so much on trying to gain an extreme amount of wealth. It would be beneficial
for many underprivileged people, but it would also help the economy and
everyone in general.
I also think that many people focus too much
on the material side of wealth. I’m not one to say that money doesn’t buy
happiness, because it can buy some great things that definitely make me happy,
however there is a problem. When people focus all of their attention on wealth, they forget to actually form true relationships, and they may have an
unfulfilled emotional side of life. Wealth of happiness (not superficial
happiness, but true satisfaction) is just as important as the security of
material wealth.
