Examples Of Making The American Dream A Reality

2081 Words9 Pages
Making The Dream A Reality By Joshua Tate People from all over the world come to America for one thing and one thing only, to achieve the American dream. They believe in a place where, through meritocracy, they can be given the opportunities they never had to help them succeed. They believe in a place where they can leave their old lives behind and start on a brand new journey, a journey that will provide themselves and their families a better future. This place is America, a place where these dreams of theirs can become a reality. However, the American Dream only promises a better life for those who are willing to take it and although it may seem very difficult to achieve due to the inequality of social opportunities, it is clear that if…show more content…
Meritocracy is the capability to succeed based on one's individual ability. One of the reasons why the American Dream is attainable is that the United States is a meritocratic country which provides all people the opportunity to succeed based on the capability of their own merit. As Stossel explains the story of a man, “Shepard, now 26, picked a city out of a hat -- Charleston, S.C. He went there with $25 in his pocket...He lived in a shelter for two months. Then he got a job with a moving company, making $8 an hour. Soon he'd saved enough to buy a used truck. And within a few months he had an apartment. After one year, he had $5,500 and a car.” Stossel's point is that if you work hard enough, you can make something, a life, out of nothing. Although anyone has the ability to succeed based on their own capability, this doesn’t mean that meritocracy in America is equal. The middle-class, affluent professional, and executive elite people/children seem to still find their way into better lives with the advantage of money. As O’Brien writes, “rich kids without a college degree are 2.5 times more likely to end up rich than poor kids who do graduate from college.” In other words, O’Brien is saying that if you are poor, you have less of a chance of achieving the American Dream and the rich have more of a chance. Yes, it may be true that people with money have it easier to succeed, but that doesn’t…show more content…
Day by day, night by night, we are constantly creating new jobs which help provide housing and bring together families. Obama agrees when he says, “Because of the recovery act I signed into law last month -- we’re making major investments to create jobs right here in California: rebuilding infrastructure, weatherizing homes...Altogether, we expect to create or save more than 369,000 jobs in this state over the next two years.” The importance of Obama's speech is that there are many jobs out there to pursue in which you can make a standard living off of. Obama also states that, “we’ve launched a housing plan that will help millions of responsible homeowners save money by refinancing or modifying their mortgages.” This is yet another key point Obama makes in which the opportunity for success in housing is becoming easier and available to all people in the United States. Although everyone has the opportunity for employment, housing, and family, many people argue that these opportunities are unfair compared to those who are rich and the hard-working aren’t getting the money and housing they deserve. George agrees in his article, “The Crime of Poverty,” when he writes, “Did you ever think of the utter absurdity and strangeness of the fact that, all over the civilize world, the working classes are the poorer classes? Go into any cab and ask the man to drive you where he working

More about Examples Of Making The American Dream A Reality

Open Document