What was the American Dream? Was it ever real?

[OddBeMe]

[Sargentcaptain]

The American dream mostly consists of 2 things:

1. Economic prosperity for the individual

2. A government that'll leave you the fuck alone

And fuck yeah, it was real. Millions of people weren't risking their lives for a chance they might make it to the new world with limited knowledge of the language and culture for no benefit whatsoever. While Europeans were dying of famine, Americans were discovering gold at every turn. While Europe was gearing up for WW2, US was creating infrastructure that still stands today, nearly a century later, no less impressive now than it was back then either. While Europe was recovering from a world war, America was putting men on the Moon. While most of the world was/is authoritarian, America let you be.

[msc545]

In the American dream you could work for 40 hours a week and have a normal job and provide for your wife and two children and buy a house and two cars and have a decent life. You could even have things like vacations and sick time and overtime pay. You could pay for your house and your groceries and all the things you needed. You could even have a little money left over and have a vacation. This dream persisted for quite some time and ended about the time the Vietnam war started in Ernest in the 60s. Nothing even close to that Dream exists now in the United States.

[Anonymous]

Maybe in the period between 1945 and 1975 maybe until 1990.

Were a man on a single wage with a high school diploma could work a factory job, own a home, support a wife and kids and have two cars in the drive as well as afford all medical bills, have a few drinks with the boys every weekend. Maybe he decides to go to college instead of a factory job out of high school and is able to pay for it by flipping burgers in the summer.

African Americans were doing better during this time despite segregation and institutional racism and the kkk.

They say that when the mobs ran the unions workers were never better paid, worked less and happier.

[EricSummer]

From a German perspective it was certainly real in 1848. At home, the monarchy was reasserting itself in force, lots of people were poor and the country was crowded compared to earlier eras.

Imagine what it must have felt like to go to a place like Wisconsin where the climate and soil were familiar, the land was wide and cheap and you could find people of all religions common in Germany (Protestant, Catholic and Jewish). Hard work paid off over there.

[Stoner710]

The ability to live/come to the United States and be able to get rich or make enough to you could by a plot of land raise children and have the government stay out of your business. Basically the idea of the white picket fence and a wife and a few kids.

that dream has turned into a nightmare due to regulations and inflation one of the worst mistakes that US government ever made was taking us off the gold standard and yes, that was under a republican known as Richard Nixon

[Juxtapose]

Yeah, back when a man could work in a factory with no college education and provide for a whole last family in some upper middle class neighborhood.

[jahaims]

Working 8 hours a day and being able to provide for your whole family was definitely the American dream.

[disgustingweebtrash]

Its called a dream because you have to be asleep

[butterly248]

Was real in the gold rush era ✨️

[Anonymous]

It was real between 1946 and 1992.