The American Dream

  

   
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 Of course, this is an outdated representation of the American Dream in our more modern culture.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?

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?

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?

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.