American_Dream

The american dream in reverse'. It was the 30th of January 2009, President of the United States of America Barack Obama was responded to the news announced by the Commerce Department that the U.S economy sank further in the last quarter of the previous year (3.8%), saying it was a symbol of the suffering of the American people constituting "the American dream in reverse." This term is now used to describe the current contraction that the U.S economy today finds itself in.To understand what the american dream is in reverse you first must understand what the american dream is. For many Americans throughout the year it was all about ownership.Two years previous to Obamas statement an article by the editor of the New York Times who describes how the contraction can been seen as the american dream in reverse wrote that "For the first time since the Carter administration, homeownership in the United States is set to decline over a president’s tenure. When President Bush took office in 2001, homeownership stood at 67.6 percent. It rose as the mortgage bubble inflated but is projected to fall to 67 percent by early 2009, which would come to 700,000 fewer homeowners than when Mr. Bush started." (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/opinion/08mon1.html'_r=1) Ownership is one of the key foundations of the american Dream, With declining levels of ownership there is only one outcome for the dream. What is the American Dream' The term that is 'The American Dream' is used in many different ways, But essentially it is the idea that all people even non Americanc can be succesfull through hard work, and that everyone can live a happy, succesfull life. The subject of the American dream is the matter of much debate in the world today. Defintions are vast and varied with the declartion of independance often refrenced as the brainchild of the idea as it states that "All men are created equal" and that there "endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights" (http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm). Many Non Americans have the view that the structure of American society belies an idealistic goal of 'The American Dream' they refer to exampls of inequality in areas such as race, class and ethnic backgrounds. This suggestion sends out the message that the dream is not always attainable by everyone who whishes to obatin it. The orgin of 'The American Dream' dates way back long before the existance of the United States. No date has let been assigned to the creation of the dream but many believe it to be in the 1600's when the people of the continent started to seek hope and aspirations for the future. The generation of happiness was the ultimate goal of the people of the U.S at the time. Many of the dreams focused on owning land and business to furfill this happiness while others sought after encorporating idea's of religous freedom into their lives. After the great depression, Many wrote about an american dream and this spread through the nation and was forever in the American society. Many who follow this American Dream have a strong belief that through hard work, anything is attainable and the world is your oylster. This belief was magnified by the movie 'Scarface'. The concept of the dream plays on the thought that America is a classless society, althought it is not, as any honest examination of the United States will reveal. The concept has many, many flaws none the less the assumption that is made by the American dream that people are not discriminated against on the basis of race, religion, ethic background and gender. Obiously this is untrue and shows one of the weaknesses of the dream. Critics have found many flaws with the dream, because of the variety of definitions available the differenciating opinons on the dream is, it becomes an easy target. Many point out that most version's of the dream equate prosperity with happiness and that happiness is not a simple state to achieve. These critics say that the American dream will always remain just that one step ahead of many americans and be tantalisingly out of reach for some american. They see it as a cruel joke, and not what is was orignally created for. Another view of the American Dream from those who have a less critical opinon of it say that the American Dream represents the oppurtuinity of living in better conditions that that of your parents. This view of progressing is the focus of the American Dream, and will unltimatly lead to a better standard of living and happier lives. The immigration community especially have this belief. Most immigrants following the dream come from difficult circumstances and next step on the ladder of the dream is to come to America for the better conidtions for their future decendants. When your 'living the dream' you have then furfilled your version of what the dream may be. When you manage to achieve this you are said to be living a happy and succesfull life. With everyones unquie interpretation of what the dream is this is not always the case. All in all, the American Dream is fundamentally about hope and the potential for change, Anyone could say that a change in their life could lead them to be living the dream and this may have been there completion of the dream.