A dream worth fighting for

In David Kamp's article Rethinking the American Dream, Kamp refers to the American Dream as an evolutionary concept, one that grows with the people who are living it. The issue with the American Dream is that it promises the impossible: a guarantee for wealth and prosperity. Wealth remains a relative term, and while most of America is wealthier than the rest of the world, there is a great divide in the middle-class and the upper-class. One can blame capitalism for creating such an equal divide, or one can blame those believed the American dream promised them the impossible. What the American dream does promise however, is the chance for success. And that's still a thing not everyone has.

In Joe Meacham's article Keeping the dream alive, Meacham believes that the American dream exist not because of the stature of what America is and what it stands for, but because of the people who fought to make it a reality. The arrogance of America is what is destroying the very thing it has to be arrogant about. But we've overcame all of this before right? We've overcame economy collapses before, but the dream has never felt so far away. The American Dream has gone from personal aspirations to a whole societal concept. One that rewards those who work hard, but at the same time punishes them. That can't be the American Dream. Society has created a fictions goal for all of us who want the American Dream. One that includes a family, a job and a future.

How does this relate to this generation of millennials and 20-somethings?  We're not living the dream as promintely as we should. A generation spoiled by the belief that the dream exist solely because we live in a country where the dream was spawned doesn't deserve the dream. Our leader is living the American Dream and we're intrigued by that. But we're intrigued not inspired. We're fighting for gay rights. We support freedom of choice. We want to the American Dream to exist, but we do not take advantage of it and we often time take it for granted. Not to say that the dream does not exist anymore, because it certainly does. But the dream is unfair to those without the head start. If the most basic requirement for the dream is a job, then living in a team where unemployment is at its highest certainly doesn't indicate the dream is well and alive.

How much of it is our fault? I can go on and on about how the lack of American education/the laziness of this generation is our downfall, but one can infer the American dream is being killed by Americans themselves. While America is as optimistic as a nation gets, doubt is slowly growing amongst a once proud nation. Student loans are at their highest...