The American Dream Is Dead: If We Want Change, We Are Going To Have To Speak Up

[LolaStalla]

Make America Great Again? Good luck. The very concepts that we have built our country on have been shaken to say the least.

For those of you who have no idea what the American dream is, here’s a definition:

"The ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative."

Today race and gender dictate weather this concept is really even possible for you. Sorry fellow females, but we make seventy-nine cents for every dollar a male makes. Not to mention race, as of 2009 the median weekly wage for African American and Hispanic workers was about 65 percent and 61 percent that of White workers, respectively. Asian workers' median wage was about 101 percent that of white workers.

Many of you may be wondering why I am going off on this tangent about equality and its tie to our countries basis. The answer to your thought is rather simple, on November eighth we will have a new president.

Many people have this concept that the entire election is a joke, but it’s not. This election can dictate centuries to come.

I don’t care what political party you are supporting, but I think everyone reading this article should consider looking for a candidate that can actually set forth what our country promises us as individuals. We as the people have a voice, and it’s critical for it to be heard.

[GingerBear]

The 'women make seventy-nine cents for every dollar a male makes' is the most misleading piece of shit statistic. The reason women, on average, earn less than men, is because women, on average work less, work lower paying jobs, and choose lower paying career paths. Men are more likely to be in engineering, medicine, software and computing, etc. Women tend to choose healthcare, childcare, education, etc. Women also take far more parental leave than men.
So when you say women earn less than men, it's NOT discrimination that's causing that. It's career choices, hours worked, leave taken.

That is all.

[OlderAndWiser]

The promise is that each of us will have access to the opportunities for success. Once we are given those opportunities, it is our responsibility to use them, to work hard, and to achieve our goals. A disparity in earning levels does not automatically mean that someone was denied an opportunity.

I want a president who will work to give us equal opportunities, not a president who promises that we will all receive the same benefits of living in our society without regard to the effort we contribute as individuals.

[Waffles731]

"The promise is that each of us will have access to the opportunities for success. Once we are given those opportunities, it is our responsibility to use them, to work hard, and to achieve our goals. A disparity in earning levels does not automatically mean that someone was denied an opportunity."
Yeah the problem is that these 'opportunities these days are mostly based on being lucky

[OlderAndWiser]

@Waffles731 I respectfully disagree. Bad luck is too often the excuse of people who let opportunities pass by or who did not work hard enough when they had the opportunities.

[hellionthesage]

No, women do not make less then men in the same field they simply choose fields that make less money. This has been proven so many times its laughable that people still believe it, kind of like believing the sun revolves around the world (or in this case the world revolves around women). Their are only three occupations that have a wage gap, one is modellign where female models make ten times the amount men do, pornography where women make about ten times more then men do, and the STEM fields where since their are fewer female workers yet their is a female highering quota companies give higher starting pay to women in order to entice them into joining their company (They also have two to one odds of being hired in proffesorships then men even though they are less likely to persue higher degrees in their respective fields).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv0KbQT1dvc

If anything this is descrimination against men not women both because of the pay inequality and the fact that their are female highering quotas yet their is no male highering quotas in female dominated fields like pediatrics, education, psychology/phyciatry, hr managment etc.(all of which are comprised of at least 80% women, in some cases more). Yet we also neglect to mention how men make up the lowest end of the spectrum as well, that is no one seems to have issue that men are doing all the crap jobs like waste managment, construction, mining, oil rig work, military/fire/police, all of which are incredibly dangerous and/or physically grueling, comprised of at least 80% men and of the twenty percent that are women, well well over 90% are in managment ie non labor jobs, white collar better paying jobs. Which explains why 98% of all work place accidents and deaths are males. As for race, that is most likely also due to job choices (fewer hispanics and blacks graduate from college, especially the men since 63%(and rising) of college graduates are female and male drop out rate is 4x higher in all levels of education (especially among black and hispanics)). The fact is with all the incentive programs that have been put in place, blacks are actually worse off then they ever have been.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6IJV_0p64s

(ironicly proven by a black proffesor of economics at stanford)
In short we have created a system that is far from equal because we never bothered to think anything through and find the real cause for disparity.

[hellionthesage]

As for elections, we don't actually have a voice, the electoral college has a voice but we do not. Thanks to gerrymandering we have red and blue states which means if you are a conservative in a blue state, your voice is ignored. Gerrymandering is what allows the party in power in that state to redraw districts which they then use to manipulate until they get more representitives of their party into the electoral college then the other so if you go against it your vote literally could have been thrown out and achieved the same result (ie their was no alteration). This also means that swing states are quite literally the only states that have any power what so ever so even voting for the party that controls the state doesn't matter. We are a constitutional republic which means that the popular vote doesn't matter, several different times the electoral college whent against the popular vote and they chose the next president, not the people. So again, it has no affect.

[hellionthesage]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd5rul6EdF0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlwbTUs-17k
So yeah, voting doesn't matter, the western world is descriminatory towards men not women, and as for race, well its descriminatory against them but in all the wrong ways thus ensuring that it continues for however long it takes before we start treating them like equals, responsibilities and all.

[nativepride73]

The American Dream is not dead. Its only dead if you kill it yourself. The American Dream has never been about making sure everyone ends up the same or that everyone gets to become rich or successful, but instead is about creating an environment in which personal success is encouraged. Where starting your own business, become rich and successful is encouraged, not punished or rejected. Not requiring the government to look after you so you don't face the consequences of your own mistakes. Relying on other people to create your American Dream is really when the American Dream dies. Now, for most people today, we have to create a "safety net" so we don't fail and have the government, or whoever, guide on the path to success. Thats not what the American Dream meant for most of its history. Instead it has always been about you building your own future. So if you choose to believe the American Dream is dead, that's your personal choice. You can look at the statistics about wage gaps between genders and groups and complain that the government should make everyone be fair for you, or you can make it fair for yourself by becoming successful and working hard and closing the gap yourself.

[Anonymous]

"The ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative."

That is meritocracy. Most people have never wanted that because most people possess only a modest degree of merit. The real characteristic motivations of Americans have changed over time and there were large segments of the population which did not share them.

For the last seventy years or so the American dream has been maximum personal material comfort and increased life expectancy. People are voting for whoever they think will help give that to them.

Before that Americans were more nationalistic. At the turn of the 20th century the philosopher George Santayana characterized the purpose of American civilization as "to increase the gross national product and the life expectancy". Before that, in the first half of the 19th century Americans were interested in moral perfection for a while, with a side order of striking it rich, mostly by exploiting the vast natural resources at their disposal. In the era of the revolution they were more concerned with equality in the sense of not recognizing anyone above them, they were quite happy to have people below them.

It's important to separate bullshit rhetoric from reality.

[Anonymous]

She wants to have two children—a boy and a girl. However, now that your finances are imploding before your eyes, you’re having second thoughts.
How much is this going to cost, anyway
A recent article by Parenting. com, entitled “The Cost of Raising a Baby” breaks the news to us: “the average middle-income family will spend roughly $12,000 on child-related expenses in their baby’s first year of life. By age two, parents are up to more than $12,500 per year.” This cost does not diminish, but stays pretty consistent. Wisegeek. org chips in with, “it costs almost $200,000 US Dollars (USD) to raise a child from birth to age 18.” $12,000 a year comes out to an extra $1,000 a month. So, if you have two children, that’s an extra $2,000 to add to the mix.
That’s $4,000 a month to buy HER American dream: a suburban home, remodeling, new transportation, and two children. I repeat, $4,000 a month!
Suicide
At this point, you’re contemplating divorce, suicide, or murder. She calls you off the ledge by assuring you, “We can do this together!” You live another day. Your mantra becomes that of Boxer the horse, in Orwell’s Animal Farm—“I will work harder.”
Financially, the “American Dream” is a man’s nightmare. It’s far too expensive. So it’s best to circumvent the whole thing by not even dating an American woman with the intention of marriage.

Remember that bad financial decisions affect the trajectory of your life. Money provides opportunities: to travel, to invest, and more importantly, to fund YOUR dreams. If you squander all your income on a suburban house, your dreams will be like that song from Kansas—“Dust in the Wind.”

[Dandeus]

For the people who constantly dismiss the gender pay gap by claiming women work lower paying jobs...

Here is apples to apples census data broken down in detail, industry by industry, at both management and non-management levels, that illustrates the pay gap on a granular level.

https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat39.pdf

and here is data showing, across multiple industries, that the pay gap exists for college graduates gaining their first jobs right out of college, addressing the allegations that the gap is due to women settling down and placing their careers on hold to have children.

www.aauw.org/research/graduating-to-a-pay-gap/

[Panay]

America failed right from the start. The dream was for a new beginning; Europeans had built up great civilisations, and along the way some things went well and others went wrong. But at that point it was too late to go back and change anything.
Then suddenly there was this magical new land-a huge continent where they could start from the beginning, but without any of the mistakes theyd made before. They had a chance to reboot civilisation and they fucked up in s huge mess of slavery, greed and prejudice

[Anpu23]

Stop the propaganda. The gender wage gap is by and large a myth, and what's left is more by personal choices. If someone is willing to bust their but, and make a plan and stick to it, you can get ahead, but it takes work , knowledge, risk, and more importantly sacrifice. If you are unwilling to sacrifice then there is no advancement.

[Spermdumster666]

At the same time we can't hold back people who have worked hard ie the Asian community.
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/.../...0bd1848eef.jpg

[NearlyNapping]

Why don't you wait another 40 years and see what you achieve "through hard work, determination, and initiative" before you declare that the dream is dead.

The dream is NOT dead. The only thing happening is that people are becoming too lazy to work for it. They want everything handed to them. They don't want to achieve a dream, they want someone else to achieve it for them.

Don't even talk about it being dead when you haven't even tried. It's not really that hard to do.

[Spiorad_Aisce]

Good take - It is so important to educate yourself in each candidate's policies and pick the person who represents the future you want for your country. I won't tell americans which way to vote but I will praise the basic principle of democracy, many are still denied this privilege.

[rjroy3]

I've seen too many people become successful in the 2000s alone to believe it's dead. Especially since people still come from all over the world to make a better life for themselves here. We may be at a low based on where we were, but we're still better off than most of the world and the dream is still alive.

[Doofey]

You do realize what the wage gap measures right? If we were to make it 1 to 1 you'd he asking for women to make more per hour. Why? Because on average, men work longer hours than women. You can't compare apples to oranges in terms of equality. A teacher will not make as much money as an engineer.

[Azara]

This is a lie. Women working over time still make less than men.

[Doofey]

@Azara No because the wage gap doesn't measure women who work overtime. It's a very specific range in tine that they work. And its average yearly wages. So please explain how you can honestly conclude women working overtime (which hasn't been measured in a wage survey) make less. Do you know what every single woman with every full time job makes? do you know the job destirbutions of all women? If you can't take those into account you can't make a conclusion like you are. It's simple logic...

[Doofey]

@Azara actually look up the methodology because you are making a lot of assumptions you can't actually make. If you were to guess would you say that there are as many men in the US as women? Because there isn't its about 49% men and 51% women. Since the majority of people in jail are men does it mean our legal system is sexist against men and favors women or are there other factors?

[Doofey]

@Azara why is it some studies show lesbians make more than straight women? Do we like lesbians more? Why do women below the age of 30 in big cities make 8% more than men?

[AdamThomas]

This is a good video where a black guy destroys all of these myths around these wage gaps and the idea that it's all to do with discrimination:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VMDU8a-296w

[Phoenix98]

I know exactly what the American dream is I've experienced it, I've seen it all around me, and it's not dead, beaten down sure, but with people like Obama in charge no wonder, with the right leader we'll get back to our roots, people like you aren't going to stand in the way of that, regardless of what you think.

[Jersey2]

Trump will tear that town up (D. C.) and put Wall Street on its heels, that is why the establishment hates him. Without the corruption and waste the US will run fine. Trump will bring jobs back. Socialism will be death for the number one country in the world and we will become lackluster and in the end it will be a lot less than we could be otherwise.

[Anonymous]

The American Dream hasn't changed, however people's work ethic has though. There's a large entitlement problem in America. Also, yes some jobs have been shipped elsewhere, but if you really put in the effort, there are still plenty of good jobs to be had here.

The moral of the story? You have to work smart and you have to work hard. Push yourself forward in the right areas. Most people don't.

[RationalMale]

That 79 cents, is that overall? All women compared to all men, stay at home moms to engineers? Is that comparing people with the same level of education, comparing teachers to successful marketing people? Unless it's comparing women and men with the same education in the same field working full time, I call bullshit.

And if being a small minority makes you oppressed, pretty sure Asians should be making like 30 cents on the dollar for what whites make XD

[WeeGeeTheSecond]

LOL, do people still use the fallacious "women gain much less than men" data?

Yeah, your American dream has been dead since the 30s, when america sank into corporatism and has been there ever since. You want do bring equality to the table? Stop giving power to the government.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, right. America is still kicking ass. People from all over the world want to live here. Our society is richer than China's, despite having 1/6 of the people. Our middle-class is among the richest middle-class in the world. If you are a middle-class American, you are richer than 90% or the world's population. Our unemployment rate is 5%. Recently, we have invented Facebook and the Iphone. Recently, we put on object on Mars, the greatest scientific/technological achievement in human history. Our system is working. Spain and Venezuela are nations that are in trouble, not the USA.

[Jackblue]

Why can't Americans understand the fact that they live very well. Our ancestors often worked 100 hours a week for an apatment in a slum, before that we were living in cottages as peasants, and before that we were living in huts and caves. Our life expectancies get higher every year, nearly everyone has access to plumbing, television, and most of us have internet access. Americans are so spoiled. The fact is that the same system which created inequalities also created America.